As a PhD, Card asked me about my JMP in elevator. It’s an Angrist-like study of conscription on human capital, I said, with child soldiers in Uganda. Where’s I get that data?! he asked. I ran a survey during the war. He stared at me blankly. Doors opened. He walked out silently.
https://mobile.twitter.com/cblatts/status/1447924673413533702
His next tweet:
"Meanwhile, Imbens generously helped me figure out that I was doing things (like calculating population rather than sample standard errors) and told me that my estimates were much more precise than I thought. Best news a PhD student can hear."
Just to be clear... what does he mean by "calculating populating standard errors"
Why is this research even remotely ethical to conduct? I would be ashamed to be the author of such a study.
cos he didn't literally go out in the bush with children armed with guns. I'm not taking a stand on the Imbens versus Card elevator issue, but I'd be proud to have investigated something as important as the long term impacts of being a child soldier.
What remotely makes you think the effect would be anything other than “bad”. Do we really need a study and to grant tenure to a nerd to know this
Why is this research even remotely ethical to conduct? I would be ashamed to be the author of such a study.cos he didn't literally go out in the bush with children armed with guns. I'm not taking a stand on the Imbens versus Card elevator issue, but I'd be proud to have investigated something as important as the long term impacts of being a child soldier.
Probably something really, really stupid like not dividing by root n.
His next tweet:
"Meanwhile, Imbens generously helped me figure out that I was doing things (like calculating population rather than sample standard errors) and told me that my estimates were much more precise than I thought. Best news a PhD student can hear."
Just to be clear... what does he mean by "calculating populating standard errors"
I mean maybe it’s good. Sort of like how imprisoning bad apples is good for the siblings. Kids becoming child soldiers might have positive effects on the rest of the family.
There’s a theory that the war on terror reduced crime by soaking up a ton of potential criminals into the armed forces.
What remotely makes you think the effect would be anything other than “bad”. Do we really need a study and to grant tenure to a nerd to know this
Why is this research even remotely ethical to conduct? I would be ashamed to be the author of such a study.cos he didn't literally go out in the bush with children armed with guns. I'm not taking a stand on the Imbens versus Card elevator issue, but I'd be proud to have investigated something as important as the long term impacts of being a child soldier.
Not surprising. Also, I would have never posted that.
Even if you had tenure, were fairly respected in your field, wouldn't have Card's students as referees, and didn't have to fear replication because run your own surveys?
Seems...pretty cowardly at that point. I get it if you're a junior, or in his field.
Anyone who knows both Card and Blattman knows how to interpret this story.
Card is a polite person. He had nothing useful to say so he said nothing.
Blattman talks constantly without thinking.
C. was an absolute menace to me, and I've heard very similar things. Anyone who has ever interacted with him has a story like B's.