From the Wells Fargo scandal to the British National Health Service and Chilean bus drivers, sometimes incentives can have unintended consequences.…
Misleading Gender Discrimination Statistics
Using statistics to identify gender discrimination accurately, we should look at the components of summary results to avoid Simpson’s paradox.…
Great Britain’s Sugary Drink Tax
While the UK’s sugary drink tax targets childhood obesity, it could also be creating a host of demand related incentives with unintended consequences.…
One Reason That Geography Matters
Have you ever looked closely at Japan and the United Kingdom? Described by geographer Jared Diamond in a fascinating podcast, they look remarkably similar. Today Japan and the British Isles are modern…
Benford's Law and Greece
Does it matter that low first digits occur more frequently? First some history. During the 1920s, Frank Benford, a physicist at GE, noticed that “one” appeared more frequently as the first…
Institutionalized Trust
The production path of a pair of Levi’s stonewashed 501 jeans could have started in a Mississippi Delta cotton farm, continued with a North Carolina fabric weaver, and included the Dominican Rep…