[MSJ] - Day 6 (Kinda): Technical Difficulties

Any hardcore blog readers will surely have noticed that my post for day 6 (this one) was not posted on day 6. This was because my computer was dead after having used it for class and homework, and when I tried to charge it to write my blog I found out that my charger wasn't working. This wasn't super surprising, since I have had both my laptop and my charger for a while (about 5 or 6 years), and I have already had to use electrical tape to tape my charger in the past.

The silver lining, however, is that yesterday wasn't an exceptionally exciting day. It started off as most days do now, with a shower, breakfast and a walk to class. In class today we talked about randomization and experiments. Randomization is what economists use to determine causality. Causality is saying that variable X causes outcome Y. It is nearly impossible to determine causality without doing an experiment consisting of a treatment group and a control group. The two groups are randomized to ensure that all other variables (race, gender, education, etc.) are not causing the outcome.

The classroom

Going onto the elevator to pick up the pizza.
(on the left is Emma, not Hanna.
Ethan is in the background)

Experiments can come in different varieties, notably lab experiments vs field experiments. The basic concept is that in lab experiments you get more control over what the participants are doing, at the expense of realism (because participants know they are part of an experiment and are in a lab), and in natural field experiments, the other end of the spectrum, you are giving up control (because you cannot control participants), but gain massively in realism (because people do not know they are part of an experiment). Economists pick the experiment they think will generate the best evidence to answer their causal question.

After class, we had a lot of readings, but to brighten the mood Hanna ordered pizza since it was her birthday. Then I went back to my room to start blogging, and now you know the story from then...