Behavioral Economics

August 16, 2018

Why Driving is Safer in Sweden

An economist might say that the optimal number of traffic fatalities depends on the cost of preventing them. Sweden disagrees. Compared to most other countries, Sweden’s […]

June 29, 2018

Why More Babies Were Born Nine Months After a Football (Soccer) Game

Because of events that range from football victories to electrical outages, birth rates can spike or fall nine months later.

June 28, 2018

The Missing Female Film Critics

The skewed race and gender of the film critics that review our top grossing movies might not express what a more diverse group would say.

June 25, 2018

Breaking the First-Digit Law and Other Number Crimes

When the digits that appear frequently in national accounting figures, spreadsheets, and earnings reports are missing, then we can say we have suspicious numbers.

June 17, 2018

Why We Needed to Retake the Marshmallow Test

After doing their own version of the marshmallow test, researchers from NYU and UC Irvine told us to look at the value of delayed gratification somewhat differently.