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Month: November 2011

Published November 15, 2011

Some Much-Needed Good News on the Food Prices Front

From the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations comes much-needed good news on the food prices front:

The food price index averaged 216 points in October 2011, down 4 percent, or as much as 9 points, from September and 22 points, or 9 percent, below its peak of 238 points reached in February 2011. The index has been falling steadily since June and, in October,  dropped to an 11-month low, but still some 5 percent above the corresponding period last year. The decline reflects sharp decreases in  international prices of all the commodities included in the index.

Indeed, the food price index encompasses five food categories: cereals, oils and fats, meat, dairy, and sugar. The real good news is that the price of cereals — which constitute the bulk of the diet of the poor in developing countries — has also declined significantly:

The cereal price index averaged 232 points in October,  down 5 percent, or 13 points, from September,  15 percent below its peak in April 2008, though 5 percent, or 12 points, higher than in October 2010.  The continuing decline in the monthly value of the cereal price index reflects this year’s prospect for a strong production recovery and slow economic growth in many developed countries weighing on overall demand, particularly from the feed and biofuels sectors.

We should also expect a decline in social unrest throughout the world as a consequences of lower food prices (link opens a .pdf document).

Published November 14, 2011

Do Data Want to Be Free?

Yes, says Kim Yi Dionne:

I was brought up in the tradition of sharing your data with others. There has been a lot of focus on the hassles of doing so (anonymizing, cleaning, getting “scooped,” etc.)

But there are a number of reasons to do it. First, only by sharing the data do you allow others to be able to improve upon your ideas (and, hopefully, selfishly, to cite your work). In fact, one study showed that sharing detailed research data is associated with an increased citation rate.

The principle of sharing your data also strikes me as a way to signal that your findings are honest. A professor of mine demonstrated to us in an advanced methods course the difficulty of replicating findings if an author doesn’t think about potential replication when submitting a piece for publication. I decided from that point forward that I would always submit a final paper only after drafting an intelligible do-file and paring down a data file that could be uploaded online for someone else to replicate. A new study in PLoS One finds the willingness to share data is related to the strength of evidence and the quality of reporting results.

I agree with Kim. That is the reason why I post my code and data on my research page as soon as an article is accepted. I do it not only because it can only increase my number of citations, I also do it because in this day and age in which referees can easily Google the authors of a given paper, the fact that you post your code and data for all of your published papers can send a powerful signal that your empirical results are trustworthy.

Published November 11, 2011

Friday Afternoon Musical Interlude

Zombies in Durham? That can only be good.

“Professional Hater (Remix) feat. Toon,” by The Real Laww:

(HT: The incredibly creative and talented @kidethnic, who directed the video and is celebrating his 33rd birthday today.)