Today marks the second anniversary* of this blog. I started blogging two years ago with the following awkward paragraph:
While economists-cum-bloggers seem to be in excess supply, the shadow value of this blog need not be zero. As an economist interested in development economics and law and economics and whose focus is on agricultural development policy, I also hope to offer a unique contribution to the policy debate.
Since then, my writing has come a long way, and my interest in law and economics has been replaced by my interest in food policy. As a consequence of blogging and tweeting, I have also made several new friends and acquaintances, and my research has had an impact beyond the Ivory Tower.
Moreover, the mere act of writing for a general audience has forced me to think much more carefully about my research topics, which has in turn generated new research ideas. So it looks as though blogging need not be a substitute for research. Rather, it can actually be a complement to research.
Red-Eye Flights and Time-Inconsistent Preferences
I will be flying to Southern California this week for the ASSA meetings, which got me thinking about red-eye flights. For those of you not in the US, red-eye flights are so named because they are overnight flights on which one typically has a hard time sleeping. It is very common for travelers flying from the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States to take red-eye — or overnight — flights, since those are typically cheaper, among other benefits.
So I have been thinking about red-eye flights. Or rather, I have been thinking about how grateful I am that my wife has decided not to book a red-eye flight on the way back from Southern California.