I came across this Japanese poster promoting masks to protect people against the 1918 flu pandemic. America is just beginning to inform its citizens about masks. It's a good example of how a century of public health education paid off in Japan.
David Weinstein
81 posts
- Here's a great opportunity for international economists (especially junior ones) to get back on the conference circuit:
- There is a fun video in Japanese (youtube.com/watch?v=pG9mwk…) that just came out explaining the main points of a recently released paper with Reka (@juhreka13) and Shogo on the globalization of the Industrial Revolution (nber.org/papers/w32667)
- The NBER Japan Project Meeting is scheduled for December 16-17, 2021 in Tokyo. If you have a paper on Japan, please submit it by July 8 here: conference.nber.org/confsubmit/bac…
- I'm looking to hire a research assistant ("Staff Associate") for a two-year position doing lots of interesting work. People use the position as a stepping stone to econ PhD programs. If that's your dream, apply! apply.interfolio.com/94547
- I'm not saying that everyone who cites my research in their campaign speeches will get a shot at the White House, but....
- This piece is so on the mark, it could have been written by an economist (with a sense of humor, if that’s possible...) nytimes.com/2020/08/24/opi…
- I was very sorry to hear about the passing of Peter Neary. He was a gentleman and a scholar. Witty and brilliant. I will remember fondly our many dinners together.
- @econ_ra I'm looking to hire a predoc starting next summer to work for me on papers related to trade, finance, macro, and development. It's a great opportunity to hone programming skills and learn how economics research is done. You can apply here: apply.interfolio.com/132998
- This is an important insight that is both true and not obvious. Co-authoring is not about comparative advantage tradediversion.net/2017/10/16/co-… via @TradeDiversion
- A friend shot this picture of a Tokyo subway. Japan's high density, early exposure, elderly population, minimal lockdown, lack of testing, and extremely low mortality rate is a puzzle I can't explain. Is it masks? hygiene? bowing instead of shaking hands? We're missing something.
- Comparing ourselves to Europe may understate how much we've mismanaged the epidemic. Using deaths per capita instead of cases and including Japan (where there was little testing, but masks were distributed to every household) gives a clearer picture of the counterfactual
This is the chart that I think best captures the extent of the US debacle. It adjusts both for population and for the fact that the US surge started later. And it's damning - Fascinating paper showing that mask-wearing explains international Covid-19 infection rates theoretically and empirically. Best explanation I've seen for why Asia (plus Slovenia and Slovakia) did so much better than Europe and America. See arxiv.org/pdf/2004.13553…
- There's a quiet functionality in Japan that people often miss. For example, Japan's COVID death rate is 6-10 percent that of Europe and the US; the long-run growth rate of GDP per work hour is comparable; and unemployment (and crime) rates are low.
