Sandro Ambuehl
@sandroecon.bsky.social
Assistant professor of Economics @econ_uzh and @ubscenter. Experiments and theory. Mental models, repugnant transactions, finance. Stanford PhD. #FirstGen
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
Delighted to announce that Ingvild Almås will join the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich in June 2025 as the 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧-𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡. Welcome, Ingvild!
More information and official press release: www.econ.uzh.ch/en/news/insi...
More information and official press release: www.econ.uzh.ch/en/news/insi...
May 21, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Delighted to announce that Ingvild Almås will join the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich in June 2025 as the 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧-𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡. Welcome, Ingvild!
More information and official press release: www.econ.uzh.ch/en/news/insi...
More information and official press release: www.econ.uzh.ch/en/news/insi...
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
I am just a simple man, begging you not to include constants in your tables when you include a bunch of fixed effects.
May 20, 2025 at 9:40 AM
I am just a simple man, begging you not to include constants in your tables when you include a bunch of fixed effects.
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
Unsolicited sci writing advice:
Writing that something always or never happens (e.g., Ɐ(x)) makes your claims vulnerable because it only takes one counterexample to break them.
The most dangerous version of this? "No prior research has addressed this question."
Writing that something always or never happens (e.g., Ɐ(x)) makes your claims vulnerable because it only takes one counterexample to break them.
The most dangerous version of this? "No prior research has addressed this question."
May 7, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Unsolicited sci writing advice:
Writing that something always or never happens (e.g., Ɐ(x)) makes your claims vulnerable because it only takes one counterexample to break them.
The most dangerous version of this? "No prior research has addressed this question."
Writing that something always or never happens (e.g., Ɐ(x)) makes your claims vulnerable because it only takes one counterexample to break them.
The most dangerous version of this? "No prior research has addressed this question."
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
economists' creed
April 30, 2025 at 11:29 PM
economists' creed
DeepResearch is helpful but you really can't trust it. A review I just had it do claims that "promise tactics" are a well-used influence strategy, but the paper it cites does not contain the word "promise" at all. For a different paper, DeepRes claims the opposite of what's in the paper's abstract
April 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
DeepResearch is helpful but you really can't trust it. A review I just had it do claims that "promise tactics" are a well-used influence strategy, but the paper it cites does not contain the word "promise" at all. For a different paper, DeepRes claims the opposite of what's in the paper's abstract
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
Reviews of Economic Literature has been launched
True open access, managed by academics for academics, it follows our mass resignation from JES where the commercial publisher imposed very problematic conditions.
Submit your literature reviews in economics!
rel.journals.sup.org/index.php/re...
True open access, managed by academics for academics, it follows our mass resignation from JES where the commercial publisher imposed very problematic conditions.
Submit your literature reviews in economics!
rel.journals.sup.org/index.php/re...
April 23, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reviews of Economic Literature has been launched
True open access, managed by academics for academics, it follows our mass resignation from JES where the commercial publisher imposed very problematic conditions.
Submit your literature reviews in economics!
rel.journals.sup.org/index.php/re...
True open access, managed by academics for academics, it follows our mass resignation from JES where the commercial publisher imposed very problematic conditions.
Submit your literature reviews in economics!
rel.journals.sup.org/index.php/re...
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
Here's a nice "proof without words":
The sum of the squares of several positive values can never be bigger than the square of their sum.
This picture helps make sense of how ℓ₁ and ℓ₂ norms regularize and sparsify solutions (resp.). [1/n]
The sum of the squares of several positive values can never be bigger than the square of their sum.
This picture helps make sense of how ℓ₁ and ℓ₂ norms regularize and sparsify solutions (resp.). [1/n]
April 17, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Here's a nice "proof without words":
The sum of the squares of several positive values can never be bigger than the square of their sum.
This picture helps make sense of how ℓ₁ and ℓ₂ norms regularize and sparsify solutions (resp.). [1/n]
The sum of the squares of several positive values can never be bigger than the square of their sum.
This picture helps make sense of how ℓ₁ and ℓ₂ norms regularize and sparsify solutions (resp.). [1/n]
What do people think is the probability the SAVE act will get passed? Can't find anything on prediction markets, but the act seems to be an important (and scary) step to entrench the current admin (by making voting harder disproportionately for more liberal-leaning groups such as married women)
April 17, 2025 at 12:35 PM
What do people think is the probability the SAVE act will get passed? Can't find anything on prediction markets, but the act seems to be an important (and scary) step to entrench the current admin (by making voting harder disproportionately for more liberal-leaning groups such as married women)
The currently most famous swiss person is probably Roger Federer. But the most important Swiss person to ever have lived is probably the guy below (Euler), besides the Bernoulli dynasty, perhaps. Remarkably, all of them came from the city of Basel.
At at time when artificial intelligence is so widely heralded it is perhaps particularly important to celebrate the highest echelons of real human intelligence.
Happy Birthday Leonhard Euler (318) and Leonardo da Vinci (573).
Happy Birthday Leonhard Euler (318) and Leonardo da Vinci (573).
April 15, 2025 at 6:25 PM
The currently most famous swiss person is probably Roger Federer. But the most important Swiss person to ever have lived is probably the guy below (Euler), besides the Bernoulli dynasty, perhaps. Remarkably, all of them came from the city of Basel.
We know a lot about how fake news spread, what makes propaganda effective, etc. But what to do about it? This is one of the few pieces I've come across that offer solutions, based on what the British tried in Germany before and during WWII. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgHH...
How to Fight (and Win) an Information War | Peter Pomerantsev | TED
YouTube video by TED
www.youtube.com
April 4, 2025 at 9:54 PM
We know a lot about how fake news spread, what makes propaganda effective, etc. But what to do about it? This is one of the few pieces I've come across that offer solutions, based on what the British tried in Germany before and during WWII. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgHH...
Harvard completely caved... they're even regurgiating the propaganda
Most misleading subject line ever.
“Our Resolve…” …to make sure nothing interferes with our $ and nobody is mean to us on Twitter?
“Our Resolve…” …to make sure nothing interferes with our $ and nobody is mean to us on Twitter?
April 1, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Harvard completely caved... they're even regurgiating the propaganda
Current US federal admin clearly respects the Pareto ordering: if a policy harms somebody without benefitting anyone, they’ll do it
March 30, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Current US federal admin clearly respects the Pareto ordering: if a policy harms somebody without benefitting anyone, they’ll do it
I think the main point about ridiculous plagiarism debates such as the one currently affecting Mark Carney is to trivialize academia. What non-academics will perceive is that acad. work = copying + rephrasing others and that the "value added" is in the rephrasing. Which nobody would want to pay for.
March 30, 2025 at 10:51 AM
I think the main point about ridiculous plagiarism debates such as the one currently affecting Mark Carney is to trivialize academia. What non-academics will perceive is that acad. work = copying + rephrasing others and that the "value added" is in the rephrasing. Which nobody would want to pay for.
TIL Velcro is a Swiss invention modeled after those pesky little burdock flower seeds that are so hard to get off your clothing once they cling to it: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro_...
Velcro Companies - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
March 23, 2025 at 3:02 PM
TIL Velcro is a Swiss invention modeled after those pesky little burdock flower seeds that are so hard to get off your clothing once they cling to it: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro_...
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
We had an wonderful couple of days hosting a strong group of PhD applicants. I am looking forward to an exciting incoming cohort at the Zurich Graduate School of Economics this fall!
Exciting Visiting Days 🎉 for 30 visiting students interested in pursuing a PhD Program in our Department.
It was a real pleasure meeting you all and we look forward to seeing many of you soon again.
And what an incredible sunset 🔥 – felt so fortunate to have shared this moment with you 😀 !
It was a real pleasure meeting you all and we look forward to seeing many of you soon again.
And what an incredible sunset 🔥 – felt so fortunate to have shared this moment with you 😀 !
March 7, 2025 at 10:22 AM
We had an wonderful couple of days hosting a strong group of PhD applicants. I am looking forward to an exciting incoming cohort at the Zurich Graduate School of Economics this fall!
Here's another instance of these "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" cases. The guy has 17 papers in 2024 alone. Not so hard if you don't care about whether the results are actually true... (the development econ scandal described here: bsky.app/profile/i4re...)
March 5, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Here's another instance of these "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" cases. The guy has 17 papers in 2024 alone. Not so hard if you don't care about whether the results are actually true... (the development econ scandal described here: bsky.app/profile/i4re...)
The longer I'm in this line of work, the more often I see instances of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"
Experimental validation, which links economic preferences to choices in incentivized elicitations, may fail to produce reliable new measures, from Jonathan Chapman, Pietro Ortoleva, Erik Snowberg, Leeat Yariv, and Colin Camerer https://www.nber.org/papers/w33520
March 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The longer I'm in this line of work, the more often I see instances of "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
Experimental validation, which links economic preferences to choices in incentivized elicitations, may fail to produce reliable new measures, from Jonathan Chapman, Pietro Ortoleva, Erik Snowberg, Leeat Yariv, and Colin Camerer https://www.nber.org/papers/w33520
March 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Experimental validation, which links economic preferences to choices in incentivized elicitations, may fail to produce reliable new measures, from Jonathan Chapman, Pietro Ortoleva, Erik Snowberg, Leeat Yariv, and Colin Camerer https://www.nber.org/papers/w33520
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
Sounds about right…
March 4, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Sounds about right…
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
March 3, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Trump's 1987 (!) NYT ad. Stunningly similar to what he's doing now (except for the "let's help .. our sick, our homeless" part).
[Of course, this is not an endorsement]
[Of course, this is not an endorsement]
March 2, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Trump's 1987 (!) NYT ad. Stunningly similar to what he's doing now (except for the "let's help .. our sick, our homeless" part).
[Of course, this is not an endorsement]
[Of course, this is not an endorsement]
LLM agents behave unlike humans in standard experimental finance (bubble) experiments.
February 28, 2025 at 11:13 AM
LLM agents behave unlike humans in standard experimental finance (bubble) experiments.
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
The main purpose of the "comment" function in LaTeX is making it psychologically easier to delete things that should be deleted.
February 26, 2025 at 9:59 PM
The main purpose of the "comment" function in LaTeX is making it psychologically easier to delete things that should be deleted.
Reposted by Sandro Ambuehl
It’s so important for people to realize that authoritarianism in America will look like this, not like a police state with martial law and people disappearing into prisons. It will be a dispirited opposition that people are afraid of supporting, bc otherwise they’ll get in trouble.
This is competitive authoritarianism in operation.
February 16, 2025 at 1:11 PM
It’s so important for people to realize that authoritarianism in America will look like this, not like a police state with martial law and people disappearing into prisons. It will be a dispirited opposition that people are afraid of supporting, bc otherwise they’ll get in trouble.