tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post152614483452463218..comments2024-03-29T06:53:23.405+00:00Comments on The IPKat: It's a gas! The Nobel Memorial Prize in EconomicsVerónica Rodríguez Arguijohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05763207846940036921noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-40367825127325487032016-10-19T13:34:28.277+01:002016-10-19T13:34:28.277+01:00Thank you, Anonymous 12:08, for explaining your po...Thank you, Anonymous 12:08, for explaining your position. Nicola Searlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05582267523535551739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-21716870084121238362016-10-19T12:08:57.431+01:002016-10-19T12:08:57.431+01:00"in the 1970s, 7% of undergraduates were fema..."in the 1970s, 7% of undergraduates were female" - This would explain why 'sham-nobel' prizewinners are male and only 12.8% of Professors are female. So, of course it is a time issue. Take a look at the ages of the latest chemistry Nobel Prize winners who where undergraduates in the 60's, never mind the 70's.<br /><br />It may also explain the salary difference, but you have to analyse all factors, including experience and results (e.g. publications, funding). Why almost parity in 1995, but lower in 2010?<br /><br />In the legal profession, I negotiated a pay rise for myself based on another job offer. A female colleague was then given an equal pay rise to match mine. She was less qualified and less experienced. Had she negotiated a pay rise for herself, there would have been no automatic matching of my salary.<br /><br />I wouldn't take the Forbes survey too seriously when their link refers to "science-of-economics". It is NOT a science.<br /><br />Regarding discrimination: Take a look around your offices and work out how many of your colleagues (male and female) are from non-upper-middle class backgrounds. The fight for equal pay appears to be equal within a privileged section of society.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-13476204462893916112016-10-19T09:45:55.994+01:002016-10-19T09:45:55.994+01:00Some more stats for perusal:
Women make up a lar...Some more stats for perusal: <br /><br />Women make up a larger percentage of economic students and early-career groups, compared to a smaller percentage of more advanced career groups. And this is not a time issue - in the 1970s, 7% of undergraduates were female, this had increased to around 25% by the time I did my undergraduate in the 1990s. A current estimate puts 35% of PhD students as female. <br /><br />Contrast those numbers with only 1 female of 77 Nobel prize in Economics winners and only 12.8% of US tenured professors are women. And two very worrying stats - the percentage of undergraduate are female is going down and salaries for women relative to men are also decreasing! <br /><br />“Female full professors in economics went from earning 95% of what male full professors earned in 1995 to less than 75% of what male full professors earned in 2010, a large and statistically significant difference.” <br /><br />Statistics in the private sector are a bit trickier, as defining "economist" as a job isn't straightforward in that sector. I've not seen stats on government economists. <br /><br />Citations: <br />Salaries: http://www.forbes.com/sites/anaswanson/2014/12/08/what-women-could-bring-to-the-dismal-and-sexist-science-of-economics/#73dc4e624176<br /><br />Decreasing number of undergraduates: http://www.res.org.uk/view/art2Oct14Features.html<br /><br />Others: https://chroniclevitae.com/news/93-lady-economists-in-an-economan-s-world<br /><br />I have done less research on the legal profession, but anecdotal evidence suggest similar problems. I will save that for a full post. Nicola Searlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05582267523535551739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-46322813409667851942016-10-19T09:36:44.855+01:002016-10-19T09:36:44.855+01:00Chance, you are truly modern for even having heard...Chance, you are truly modern for even having heard of the phrase "Fourth Wave Feminism".<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-11876797297669619922016-10-19T09:07:34.214+01:002016-10-19T09:07:34.214+01:00Anonymous of Tuesday, 18 October 2016 at 23:14:00 ...Anonymous of Tuesday, 18 October 2016 at 23:14:00 BST, we are all part of the same society, men and women, and we need to make society work in the best way for both genders. It does not have to be cut-throat competitive environment. Plenty of work places have a laddish,sexist environment which disadvantages women. I am male, and I can tell you many of my male friends, some in senior positions, are sexist. Our society is very much a case of work in progress when it comes to equality for the genders. Highlighting the odd case of positive discrimination does not really appreciate the bigger picture of what many women experience every day in the workplace or even walking down the street. We are meant to be in Fourth Wave Feminism but I know most of my male friends have been left behind when it comes to such enlightened thinking.Chancenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-88914336433069037662016-10-18T23:17:39.192+01:002016-10-18T23:17:39.192+01:00.... and obviously, if 25% of the worlds 'top&....... and obviously, if 25% of the worlds 'top' economists were female in 1996, then I take your point.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-22556008749080716512016-10-18T23:14:22.009+01:002016-10-18T23:14:22.009+01:0076 male winners in 2016? True Nobel prizes are muc...76 male winners in 2016? True Nobel prizes are much rarer.<br /><br />I hear that girls do better than boys in school these days. Is this evidence that girls are better than boys or that the education system is biased in their favour? The real evidence, as opposed to mere statistics, demonstrates that it is the latter, but these results are praised in the media without the slightest sense of hypocrisy.<br /><br />Many in-house legal/patent departments are becoming female-dominant, which is also odd when you consider the statistics. Is this a case of the new female senior management having a discriminatory recruitment policy? Could they be meeting their new recruits at the 'Women in IP' get togethers, perhaps?<br /><br />For what it is worth, I don't believe there is such a thing as positive discrimination and I am a firm believer in merit over bias/favouritism at all levels. Unfortunately, like attracts like, and ignorance is bliss.<br /><br />If 25% of economists, today, are female, I would expect that to translate into 25% of prize winners to be female in 20 years. That is how long Nobel prize winners have to wait.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-58137897343182164702016-10-18T14:19:16.473+01:002016-10-18T14:19:16.473+01:0076 male winners (2016), 1 female. That's 1.3%...76 male winners (2016), 1 female. That's 1.3%. On average, 25-30% of economists are female. <br /><br />http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/11922707/Nobel-Prize-winners-How-many-women-have-won-awards.html<br /><br />Nicola Searlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05582267523535551739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-16737445690097421552016-10-17T22:14:18.685+01:002016-10-17T22:14:18.685+01:00Second, be male.
Be sexist about everything, why ...Second, be male.<br /><br />Be sexist about everything, why not! Tiresome.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-59337963925723058962016-10-17T18:12:00.169+01:002016-10-17T18:12:00.169+01:00"Once you measure, you distort"
Known i..."Once you measure, you distort"<br /><br />Known in physics as the observer effect, for which no Nobel prize has been given. Apparently mistaken for the uncertainty principle, which was the creation of a certain physicist called Heisenberg, for which a Nobel prize was justifiably awarded.<br /><br />A similar phenomenom may occur in economics, where it isn't possible to know which way the economy is heading (e.g. 'further down the pan') when the current position of the economy is known to be 'down the pan'?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-10940217353494482112016-10-17T17:23:29.127+01:002016-10-17T17:23:29.127+01:00with respect to mathematics?
Alfred (Nobel/Novel)...with respect to mathematics?<br /><br />Alfred (Nobel/Novel) presumably understood that mathematics advances mankind by its application - i.e. physics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-8671720025661118322016-10-17T15:51:51.427+01:002016-10-17T15:51:51.427+01:00Chance - indeed! Once you measure, you distort. Co...Chance - indeed! Once you measure, you distort. Contracts cannot avoid their own version of the observer effect.Nicola Searlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05582267523535551739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-65923645442229387692016-10-17T12:09:46.572+01:002016-10-17T12:09:46.572+01:00I would refer to the concept of 'gaming the sy...I would refer to the concept of 'gaming the system'. Any set of rules is open to being cheated/milked. So performance targets for employees will be 'gamed' within 6 months as people figure out how to artificially inflate whatever parameter is being measured. Contracts/IP and any other rule/system is susceptible to gaming. Hart and Holmstrom's work is really a recognition of gaming happening in all contracts.Chancenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-35718910171549831722016-10-17T11:25:30.907+01:002016-10-17T11:25:30.907+01:00Your comment on eliminating the competition is a v...Your comment on eliminating the competition is a very good illustration of things to be aware of. I always advise my smaller/naive/university clients of making sure they have a term in the licence that allows them the take back the technology and develop/market it if the other side decides to do nothing with the project. <br /><br />University tech transfer often don't have the sophistication/expertise to be able to see all the ways they can be taken advantage of, and they are sometimes too desperate to find commercial partners.<br /><br />In biotech patent filings have to be seen as a metric of performance, especially when you don't have any products yet which you are selling. However due diligence is often not able to distinguish between good and bad filings. As they become increasingly financialised I fear patents will become as complex and as risky as derivatives, with the potential for making lots of money, but also be a source of instability in the economic system.<br /> Glasnostnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-86828733120328017632016-10-17T10:09:40.697+01:002016-10-17T10:09:40.697+01:00Re: Alfred Novel had a great understanding of the ...Re: Alfred Novel had a great understanding of the important things for the advancement of mankind <br /><br />Especially, with respect to mathematics ...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18138670139234791116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-61281426599320051942016-10-16T20:32:55.608+01:002016-10-16T20:32:55.608+01:00Alfred Novel had a great understanding of the impo...Alfred Novel had a great understanding of the important things for the advancement of mankind when he created the categories for his prizes. If economics was either scientific or cultural, I'm sure Alfred would not have excluded it from his list. After all, moneylending has been around almost as long as the oldest profession, and there is no prize for that either. Good company.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com