Saturday, January 02, 2010

Blogging the ASSA 2010

My New Year's resolution: I'm gonna try to write more, beginning with the ASSA 2010. This conference is my motivational retreat, where every year I promise myself to write more. It never happens. I need a commitment mechanism.

Like any good social scientist I enjoy coming to this conference if for no other reason than to people watch. Sure you see famous people on occasional, like the time Stan Fisher almost mowed me over in the lobby. Or the time Roland Fryer bummed my conference schedule to avoid having to register. But one of the moments I'll always treasure is the sight of wide eyed nerds stumbling down Bourbon St in New Orleans looking in on the strip clubs, while still wearing their conference badges. Not that you wouldn't have been able to pick out the economists without the badges, but they added a certain je-ne-sais-quoi. This year the AEA wants to make sure everyone knows how nerdy we are. Check out the badge holders they are distributing:


Really? People are going to be wondering where all the short buses are parked. To make matters worse the headquarters hotel is also full of college kids leftover from the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. At the moment staring wide-eyed at the onslaught of econonerds.

The preliminary program has links o some of the papers, I'll try to post during a few of the sessions.

1 comment:

Medical Claims Consulting said...

Your writing cracks me up! : )