Attitudes regarding Mothers a la Google: A Simple Experiment

In the spirit of the google-search-bar fill-out, here's another.

I'm changing it slightly however, not by comparing across people within a single google page, but across people in different countries. The following is an international comparison between the US and India about what people feel about their mothers





Thus proving that, indeed, Indians do love their mothers quite a bit? (Dunno about that stuff about a fish and a fob though).

Coming on weak

Why is it
that silence signifies dignity

and loudness boorishness?

are these just words?

Oh, and Oye Lucky is the most misunderstood movie ever made.

"Meethe Meethe, Tere Meethe Meethe Bol
Oye Oye Oye Oye

Saanu Kaat Gayi
Saanu Baat Gayi
Saanu Chhaat Gayi
Tu Jugni Jugni"

translation:
"pretty girl
your sweet talk

it's cut me
bled me
ruined me"

there's more to these lines than just unrequited love. I remember reading an article by Amartya Sen about how society needs a little inequality to promote growth - the argument being that those at the bottom will aspire to be on the top.

The question Oye Lucky poses is - what if that route to the top is frustrated by societal norms that will not allow (for instance) the maid in my parent's house in Delhi to eat at the dining table? Where does the aspiration go when it is not allowed to manifest itself in public, but must always play the role of lubricant?

These are very real questions, and they hit people like me right in the gut because it questions so much about our upbringing. We are privilged in ways that are completely unimaginable to us - it isn't only money or parental care, it is a more basic attribute of freedom to be wherever we want to be without fear of spite or envy.

Not sure what I'm thinking of, but perhaps one goal for any society that seeks to be progressive and fair is to allow for upward mobility.

I cannot think of any other movie that made me come up with such questions. The thing is this "message" is so subtle and understated in the movie that it has been missed completely at least by most of the mainstream critics who bother with Bollywood. I've seen this movie 4 times now, and begin to get it only now.

"Lucky in middle class walon se bach ke rahna. Yeh dikhte angrez hai, karte desi hain."

Update: just realized that Amartya Sen's concept of development as freedom ties in closely with this - Lucky's freedom is limited by a societal norm borne apparently out of artificial considerations.

Q and A

Q: Would you agree with the definition of an institution as a set of rules designed to reduce transaction costs?

A:I believe that some institutions have arisen specifically to reduce transaction costs, usually to solve asymmetric information problems though this is not necessary.

North (1991) defines institutions as those man-made rules that determine transaction and productions costs together with the standard constraints of economics. He also argues that institutions determine the cost of transaction – by raising the benefits of solutions or by increasing the cost of cheating – thus making economic activity possible.

Akerlof’s (1976) paper on the function of the lemons market points to the importance of having an institution exist to solve the lemons problem. Grief (1993) in his study of the Maghribi trading coalition explains the functioning of an institution that arose to solve an information problem. The solving of this information problem in turn guaranteed the existence of economic activity (trading) by reducing the transaction cost that would have otherwise been too high to support the economic activity.

Institutions can, however, also be seen as the end result of an evolutionary process which does not necessarily benefit everyone, or increase overall welfare (Sugden 1989). In such an argument, the reason for the existence of certain rules is not they solve information problems or reduce transaction costs necessarily but simply that enough people follow them. Every individual who obeys these rules stands to gain given the expectation that every other individual will also obey these rules.

Sugden (1989) proposes the idea of institutions as spontaneously arising rules that may or may not be efficient solutions. He argues that certain rules arise in society simply because other people follow it. Also, anyone following this rule expects to do as well, if not better, than anyone else following other competing rules. Viewed this way, institutions as a collection of rules don’t necessarily have to reduce transaction costs. In fact, Sugden argues that in many instances, institutions arise that are not pareto –efficient. They “need not be well adapted to the problems of coordination they resolve”.

So, while the definition of institutions as a means of reducing transaction costs is reasonable, it is not complete. Some institutions certainly do not solve transaction costs (the layout of the keyboard I am typing on for example) – for these rules, one must extend the definition to include the concept laid out in Sugden’s 1989 paper.

Mallu's rock, and so do a bunch of other people

It seems like Indian rock is coming of age; I've been sampling some of Avial's work as well as Them Clones (who've released a full length album with pictures of their parents on the inside sleeves, thus proving Yash Johar right) along with hithero unknown bands (Vikram) and known but not-heard (Zero).

There's enough amongst the above mentioned bands alone to put together a decent mix tape. While some bands are fairly derivative (the much heralded Superfuzz) - but still good - some are sort of coming into their own. No better example of this than Avial's 'Karukara'. This is, I would argue, a legitimately "Indian" rock song.

Why is this a big deal? Simple. The world has seen enough AC/DC, Metallica, Beatles, Stones, Iron Maiden, Nirvana etc rip offs to be bothered about more of the same coming from India. This is NOT to say that a derivative sound is without merit - done well (a la "My Life" by Them Clones)- these are still excellent songs; but if Indian bands are to make it big they must do it on their own terms.

By big, I mean at least as popular as Shah Rukh Khan is across the world. (Okay maybe Shah Rukh Khan is too much of a comparison. Still, I mention that particular landmark because it shows how someone who was pretty much a nobody can have a dance class instituted inn his name in the outskirts of Lima in the span of a couple of decades - and all this while doing something COMPLETELY alien to the average Peruvian).

I realize today, that, as a "researcher", I've changed fundamentally in many ways. I also realize how much the faculty here has helped shape my thinking.

This is a good feeling.

And, I semi-demonstrated today that the results of a 20 year old seminal paper in econometrics do not hold up. Now, I cannot access the data that paper used - the Dept of Commerce changed the definition of the variable which is trying to be understood -

but one would imagine a change in definition should not affect the qualitative nature of an important macroeconomic indicator (implicit price deflators), right?

Wrong! It does, and it points to the fragility of at least one statistical result in the face of seemingly minor changes in the definition of a variable.

Although somewhat depressing, doing this sort of work makes you feel very intimately connected with economics.

It may not be sexy like Steven Levitt and Co's approach to "research" (take an interesting social phenomenon, subject it to a barrage of statistical tests, leaving aside issues of generalizability or usefulness) but it shows the very fragile nature of applied statistics when dealing with economic outcomes.

You'd imagine price deflators were among the more "solid" variables out there. Forget the sex, drugs and rock n roll economics, this is basic stuff one would take for granted.

The implications are troubling.

A Little Music Education

According to Pandora, Jethro Tull's Bouree

which is really Johann Sebastian Bach's composition

is described as having:

jazz influences
mild rhythmic syncopation
intricate melodic phrasing
extensive vamping
thru composed melodic style
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
minor key tonality
melodic songwriting
a prominent flute part
an instrumental arrangement

jazz influences!

Sunday Morning

So, do you like sundays? Personally, I think it's the most depressing day of the week.

Maybe it's school - we always had a test on Mondays - to blame for this. Saturdays are always full of hope, Friday's I feel like having a beer, the rest of the week sort of folds into itself, but Sunday, my lord, what's up with that? What do you do with a Sunday? Waste it, use it? Neither seems appropriate.

I made Spinach Saag and Chana Daal. The Dal was unbelievable; there weren't any onions so the spinach was not what it could have been. Good, never the less.

Velvet Underground summed up my feelings for sunday:

Sunday morning, praise the dawning
It's just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning, sunday morning
It's just the wasted years so close behind

Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all

Sunday morning and I'm falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know
Early dawning, sunday morning
It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago