a Chinese song:

http://www.haoting.com/htmusic/28846ht.htm

I did not pay much attention to this song actually. But now it is very proper for today's occasion.

1. Skim Giles and Yoo (2006), which used RCRE village and household survey data. I don't know how to get access to the data...

2. Wei invited a few Chinese students including me to have dinner in his corridor. He got drunk and talked a lot. He even recited a line by CuiHao,

晴川历历汉阳树，芳草萋萋鹦鹉洲

which can be literally translated to 'Across the sunlit river, clearly seen are Hanyang’s trees/ And Parrot Island’s teeming, fragrant grasses.' You see, it is far from the original...

I felt a bit sad seeing Wei drinking and throwing up. I am lucky in this sense as I do not feel so lonely here. What I miss most about China are a few lines like the one he mentioned.

1. Had applied micro lecture in the morning. Now I am thinking of writing a 'pure' empirical paper as I have taken a series of econometrics courses. Perhaps I should look at CHNS data again. I am interested in the effects of migration workers on the risk/insurance of their families.

2. Went to the gym after calling Yiping. Good. Hopefully I can manage to go to the gym or read a bit Swedish, if I fail to do anything else in a day.

3. Yinan told me that he will go to Berkeley to present his paper on the survival of autocracies. Happy for him. btw, I just realized that Markov equilibrium is not so interesting as I thought.

Read Chapter 19 in Lars' textbook. It is simple conceptually but complex technically. I am not sure whether I can use the tools directly in the topic I am interested in-coalition formation in non-democracies.

Emailed Princeton to see whether they have got my reference letters. They have not but they said, 'Our admissions director has reviewed the rest of your file and has given the approval for admission'. Quite strange. I need to ask Torsten whether I should apply for other schools. (I always feel ashamed of myself when turning to him for this kind of issues. I should talk with him only about research, I suppose). Besides, my GRE and TOEFL scores are too old. Not sure whether it is a problem. Anyhow, I shared this news with the reference writers, Wang laoshi and Po laoshi. Thanks to them. Then I regretted as it might be better if I tell them after I have settled down in the States. Sigh.

The most important Swedish news today is that their princess Victoria (who will become their first female King) is engaged to Daniel, a man with a gym but without any royal background.

Here is the video. They talk pretty slowly but I can understand little:(

A bit tired today. I looked forward to the recursive contracts lecture. But don't know why, I was just listless. I have to contact someone in Beijing to get my undergraduate transcripts. Really dislike dealing with these issues.

Quote of the day.

At the end of spring quarter, I had looked in the back of Kenneth Boulding’s textbook and read Boulding’s description of Paul Samuelson’s Foundations of Economic Analysis as “the most important book in economics since the war.” I had a summer to prepare for the beginning of graduate work in earnest, and there was no point in wasting the time on the second most important book. I got a copy from the library and all that summer, during lunch and coffee breaks from my research assistant job, I worked through Samuelson’s first four chapters. When I got home each night, I wrote out what I had learned that day, line by line.

Bob Lucas, Professional Memoir

I have read this memoir many times. Lucas' presentation is interesting, honest and encouraging. Every researcher starts his career from the 'line by by line' stage, even he is Robert Lucas. The story of the search paper with Prescott tells me many things, one of which is that math has never been overrated.

Watched Ondskan (2003). I could not enjoy it, which is also expected. I find it hard for me to love films after 1970s, perhaps because I have been indulged in those 'pretentious art films' for such a long time.

Did Swedish homework.

Skim Hausman and Rodrik, 2003

1. Finished a 24-hour take home exam within 1 hour.

2. Went to a development economics seminar and will talk with the presenter next Tuesday.

3. Attended the Swedish class. There were two other girls speaking Chinese during the first class and they dropped after that. The remained are mainly from Germany, Holland or France. Of course they also spend a lot of time talking with the Swedes. Learning a language is one of the easiest things in the world, I would say, given you spend enough time. My problem is that I talk too little.

So please talk.

Quote of the day:

Why should I pretend to be mature when practically every star in the night sky is older than I am?

from Against Maturity

Had behavioral economics lectures in the morning and in the afternoon. Today's topics are about neuroeconomics, biology and economics. The papers were published in Science, Nature etc. The topics are fascinating. The methodology is not.

Had lunch at the place I have been accustomed to. The restaurant is operated by Chinese but only provides Japanese and Korean food.

Cooked a fish (röding). Very good.

Worked on recursive macro homework. Almost finished.

Worked on recursive macro homework.

The new Swedish course began today. It is much more difficult than the previous two and I can learn a bit more. I am happy. We are assigned to read Ondskan by Jan Guillou. The adapted movie was posted by someone on Youtube. It seems not my cup of tea. My adolescence was so quiet. I never got angry toward anyone or anything. I even thought I lost the ability of becoming angry.

Read Chapter 2 in Pissarides (2000).

Summary of Chapter 1:

1. The model demonstrates how both unemployment and vacancies can exist concurrently in labor market equilibrium. The reason is that searching frictions.

2. The frictions are formed by matching function.

3. In steady state, job creation rate is equal to job destruction rate.

4. Out of steady state, changes in the productivity (or other parameters) have an immediate effect on the wage because wages can be renegotiated any time. Firms are able to adjust their vacancies immediately, hence v and tightness variable jump. The unemployment rate u is pre-determined as it is tied to the matching function. Hence vacancies have the tendency to overshoot.

Related papers:
New developments in models of search in the labor market.
Job reallocation, employment fluctuations and unemployment

Nowadays I spend different holidays the same way: eating a bit more, sleeping a bit more and watching a boring and depressing movie. Here is my not-funny-at-all Valentine's day:

Got up at noon. Prepared three dishes (which are a lot for me). Went to bed again after lunch. Got up again and watched an old film, 'L'Eclisse' (1962).

Ingmar Bergman did not like Antonioni and he once said,

'He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I've seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade. He concentrated on single images, never realising that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for L'Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress.'

I guess I might be a good lover if I have a chance. At least I know a few poems and films for this occasion:) Perhaps they are only helpful conditional on having a lover. Who knows.

To My Valentine by Ogden Nash

More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That's how much I love you.

I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.

As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea,
Or a juggler hates a shove,
As a hostess detests unexpected guests,
That's how much you I love.

I love you more than a wasp can sting,
And more than the subway jerks,
I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch,
And more than a hangnail irks.

I swear to you by the stars above,
And below, if such there be,
As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes,
That's how you're love by me.

A first lesson in econometrics. For fun.

Finished the mock referee report.

Read Chapter 1 in Pissarides (2000).The basic points are:

(1) Equilibrium is a triple (unemployment, tightness, real wage) that satisfies the flow equilibrium condition, the job creation condition and the wage equation.

(2) Equilibrium for tightness and wage: higher wage makes job creation less profitable and so leads to a lower ratio of jobs to workers; at higher market tightness the relative bargaining power shifts in favor of workers.

(3) Vacancy-unemployment space: the Beveridge curve is convex to the origin and the other curve is a line through the origin.

Attended a six-hour lecture on micro econometrics, basically a review on experiment and matching estimator.

Worked on the mock referee report for Hornstein, Krusell and Violante (2007).

Read Hornstein, Krusell and Violante (2007). Got stuck in the technical part. Be patient and just take it as an exercise for fun.

My short winter vacation begins with a visit to London for a conference at UCL and ends with re-reading parts of 'the powerbook', in the beginning of which VERDE was mentioned.

Here is a picture taken in front of VERDE's, located at 40 Brushfield St, Spitalfields Market. I am not sure whether the orange tree is Jeanette's idea. But fans of her works feel familiar with the oranges, although oranges are not the only fruit in the shop.



Everything is good. And I need to continue my work now. Begin.

Some impressions of London. I am such a deeply superficial tourist.

One lesson from a stressful day: never take the chance to play if it is a chance to study.

http://www.sciam.com/

Just noticed a well-written book: Pissarides, Equilibrium Unemployment Theory


Tomas' paper on strategic ambiguity was published on JPE. I like his style. Hope I can talk to him again when I am clearer about my idea of cheap talk.

Got a few thoughts from a non-technical paper, second-best institutions.

1. Behavioral economics in the morning, about hypothetical versus real decisions. Still doubtful about the methodology.

2. Recursive macro in the afternoon. Today is about matching model, with heterogeneous jobs and with layoff tax. Lars said good evening to me after the class. I am happy.

3. In the process of reading Diamond and Spinnewijn (2009). Peter Diamond will give a seminar here on Wednesday. Look forward to it.

4. Got some pictures of YuanYe's girlfriend. Very happy for him. When I saw him in Denmark last summer, I could not believe this considerate and handsome guy was once the little boy who dared not walk in a dark night.

5. Got another set of pictures of Dan's wedding. (Is February a month for love?) She studies at UC Davis and majors in trade theory. Perhaps I was the only one among our classmates knowing her marriage registration as she borrowed my red sweater for the registration picture. The wedding is expected, but still happy for her.

Good. This is a happy Monday.

Got up very late. Called my grandmother. Then got to bed again until the loud talk woke me up. Don't know why they were talking (in French) just outside my door. I barely talk to anyone in my corridor. Just realized that different people have come and gone in the one and a half years. The corridor was Russian dominated when I just came and now it is French dominated. I am the only only that remains. Too lazy to move.