My 2016 in review: Books I read

Throughout the year - I read a fair number of books.  Here are some of the books that I found most enjoyable or informative.

1. New Money, Staying Rich.  (By Philip Buchanon)

Really interesting book about the financial pressures felt when relatively uneducated athletes (at least uneducated about how to handle wealth) come into huge sums of money.  The stories presented here are quite sad.  Many people seem to feel entitled to the wealth of those who earn it and it has caused serious problems for thousands of professional athletes.

2. So You've Been Publicly Shamed (By Jon Ronson)

Fantastic read about the history of shaming.  Best non-econ/non-fiction book I read in 2016.

3. Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway (By Michael Riedel)

If you like Broadway shows and history, you'll really enjoy this book.  Lots of nuggets of the economics behind shows as well - a very entertaining read.

4. Narco-Economics (Tom Wainwright)

Fantastic economic analysis of drug cartels, why they might collude, when they might fight, and the consequences.  This book applies economic analysis to illegal drug manufacturing - and naturally the results of what has happened makes total sense.  Highly recommend.

5. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (J.K. Rowling)

Fantastic - if you're a Harry Potter fan.  I just wish I could get tickets to the show ...

6. Autobiography of Mike Sexton (Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson)
7. Biography of Stu Ungar (Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson)

--- #6 and #7 are great for poker afficiandos

8. Partners (John Grisham short)

It is short, but fun if you like Grisham.

9. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies (J.K. Rowling)
10. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics, and Pesky Poltergeists (J.K. Rowling)

11. Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (J.K. Rowling)

These three short stories are fun if you are a fan of the Harry Potter series.

11.  The New Trail of Tears (N.S. Riley)

This book, featuring how the US government's policies are dooming reservations is fantastic and horrifying at the same time.  I really recommend reading it, but it will depress you.

12. The War on Cops (Heather Mac Donald)

Great, but disturbing.

13. The Upside of Inequality (Edward Conard)

I discussed this book here

14. Liar's Poker (Michael Lewis)

An older book I just hadn't read before.  It was entertaining, but I found his disdain for the finance industry a bit off-putting and quite unlike the people I've met from the major financial companies.  I've never worked on Wall Street, but the graduates from Susquehanna we send to major financial companies are among the nicest and smartest I know.

15. The Whistler (John Grisham)

I enjoy Grisham's books - this one was entertaining.

16. Tradition!: The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World's Most Beloved Musical (Barbara Isenberg)

Great read for theatre fans.

17. Hamilton: The Revolution (Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter)

See comment for #16.

In the queue (or just started)
1. Verbal Poker Tells
2. Order to Kill (Vince Flynn)
3. Brain Rules
4. The iPhone Photographer

Smokers’ BMI and Perceived Health: Does the Order of Questions Matter?

"Smokers’ BMI and Perceived Health: Does the Order of Questions Matter?" is the title of a paper I wrote that was just published at Preventive Medicine Reports.  The link is here.  This was coauthored with Richard O'Connor and Maansi Bansal-Travers.

Here is the abstract:

We surveyed 431 daily smokers between November 2014-March 2015 to examine the impact of the order of questions on the response to a self-reported health question as part of a larger experimental study. We randomized the question order, with some respondents providing their weight prior to self-reporting their health, while others did the opposite. We found that self-reported health outcomes are worse when smokers are first asked to report their weight. However, the order of questions only seems to impact those who are overweight as we did not find evidence that the order of questions affected responses for those with a BMI below 25. These findings suggest that the order of asking self-rated health and weight questions appears to matter, at least for overweight current smokers.

Workshop on the Election

Interviewed on Trump for WNEP TV

link here

Jeffrey Dorfman Visits Susquehanna

On Thursday, as part of the Liberty and Economic Freedom Speaker Series, we had Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman visit campus.  His talk, "How the well-meaning government hurts the poor" was supurb.  I was pleased that about 250-275 people showed up in Degenstein Theatre to see him talk: approximately 10% of the student body was there!

The biggest thing I learned was about the magnitude of the disincentives faced by the working poor to gain raises or promotions.  At one point in the talk, he described the incentives faced by a single mom.  If she earns under $29,000, she will receive many extra government benefits.  But once she hits $29,000, she starts losing so much in benefits that she won't have the same level of after-tax income/benefits until she earns $69,000!  That is terrible policy and gives the working poor an incentive to NOT seek promotions or acquire additional human capital.

One main problem is all of the different government agencies have their rules on when benefits get phased out, but most are in the same income range.  I left the talk somewhat depressed, as the easy solution for this would be to abolish all the welfare programs and replace them with cash payments.  The political likelihood of that happening soon, however, is next to zero.

My Newest Publication: Using Experimental Auctions to Examine Demand for E-cigarettes

Here is the link to my newest publication, "Using Experimental Auctions to Examine Demand for E-cigarettes", in Nicotine and Tobacco Research

Abstract

Background: E-cigarettes are the latest in a line of potentially reduced exposure products that have garnered interest among smokers.

Methods: In this paper, we use experimental auctions to estimate smokers’ demand for e-cigarettes and to assess the impact of advertisements on willingness-to-pay. These are actual auctions, with winners and losers, which means hypothetical biases often seen in surveys are minimized.

Implications: Given these reduced harm products are appealing, if smokers are able to switch completely to e-cigarettes, there is a good chance for accrual of significant harm reduction.

The Upside of Inequality

The Upside of Inequality is the title of Ed Conard's newest book, which was released today.

Disclaimer: I had the pleasure of helping Ed by doing a bit of background research for him.  

I am certainly a bit biased, as I helped on the book, but I think this is one of the best books of 2016.  And I don't think my bias is coloring my view too much, as before I helped on this book I was a big fan of his previous book, Unintended Consequences, and had even assigned it in my Political Economic Thought class.  

Some of my favorite parts of this book are:

* The section asking if the middle class really is being hollowed out.  The answer is a convincing no - comparisons that show median incomes are falling are skewed by lower paying jobs acquired by immigrants.  

* The section examining how much money a poor person receives in government benefits.  It is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, but this book gives a good estimate with a defensible methodology.

* The discussion of income mobility - which is alive and well in the USA.

The entire book is thought provoking, and I highly recommend it.

Podcast with Bloomberg

I recorded a podcast with Bloomberg last week about using Hamilton to teach economics.  The link is here.

2016-2017 Liberty and Economic Freedom Speaker Series

The Liberty and Economic Freedom Speaker Series is continuing! In 2016-2017 we will be bringing three speakers to campus. This is the third year of the series and promises to be educational and fun. (See here and here for information on the previous two years).


Our speakers are:

Jeffrey Dorfman


How the 'well-meaning' government hurts the poor

Thursday, October 6th, 2016. 7:30 PM. Degenstein Theatre

Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman is an economist and professor at The University of Georgia, where he has been since 1989. He teaches classes in microeconomic theory, the economics of the food industry, and macroeconomic theory and policy. He performs research mostly on productivity measurement, economic forecasting, and the economics of growth and sprawl. He has authored three books, over seventy academic journal articles, and a variety of other articles published in trade publications, the popular press, and on the web. He writes regular opinion columns for RealClearMarkets.com and Forbes. In 2013, he was elected as a Fellow by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. He has testified to the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, to the Georgia Senate Special Committee on Feedgrains, and to a USDA Panel on Farmland Preservation. He served as editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the top academic outlet for his field, from 2009-2012. He is a consultant to a variety of businesses, foundations, and local governments with past and current clients including Sprint, the American Farmland Trust, Pennington Seed, Fulton County Schools, and numerous city and county governments in the Southeastern U.S. He is married, with one daughter, and they attend Central Presbyterian Church where he serves as treasurer.



Abdullah Al-Bahrani




Econ Beats: Discovering Economics in TV, Music, and Other Media

Monday, March 6th, 2017. 7:30 PM. Degenstein Theatre
(Note: Date/location is new.)

Dr. Abdullah Al Bahrani is the Director of the Center of Economic Education (NKU CEE) and an Assistant Professor of Economics at Northern Kentucky University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kentucky in 2010. His Master degree in Economic Theory was awarded by American University in Washington D.C. in 2003 and he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the University of Louisville in 2002.


Currently, Abdullah's primary focus is on innovative approaches to teaching Economics. He also examines market structure and competition in the banking and real estate industries. His research has been published in the Southern Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Education, International Review of Economics Education, and the Journal of Housing Research.


In 2016 he received the Excellence in Teaching and Instruction award at Northern Kentucky University. He is also the recipient of the Dean’s Citation for Teaching at the Haile/U.S Bank College of Business in 2015. At the University of Kentucky, while working on his graduate degree, he was awarded Most Outstanding Teaching Assistant in Economics at Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Al Bahrani worked in the mortgage industry from 2003-2006. He has also served as outside economic consult to the Ministry of Education, Sultanate of Oman and new business ventures entering Oman.




Joe Calhoun



Consumer Protection and Other Economic Fallacies

Monday, April 10th, 2017. 7:30 PM. Isaacs Auditorium

Joseph P. Calhoun is a Lecturer in the Department of Economics and the Assistant Director of the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University. He currently teaches large principles of economics classes with annual enrollment of nearly 3,000 students. To enhance student learning and manage multiple large sections, he is a heavy user of technology both in and outside the classroom. He is also well known around campus for showing video clips to illustrate concepts and inject humorous breaks. In addition to leading workshops for the Stavros Center, he has presented teaching ideas and technology at several national conferences. He is also responsible for training and mentoring new graduate student teaching assistants for their initial teaching responsibilities at FSU.

A graduate of Illinois State University with a BS in finance and economics and of DePaul University with an MBA, he began his career in the health care industry before leaving to become an economist. His Ph.D. is from the University of Georgia.

Dr. Calhoun has received numerous teaching awards including the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award at the University of Georgia, the Undergraduate Teaching Award at FSU, and three times received the Service Excellence Award for Teaching from Phi Eta Sigma at FSU. He also won first place in the Economics Communicators Contest in 2008 which was cosponsored by the Association of Private Enterprise Education and Market Based Management Institute. He currently resides in Tallahassee, FL with his wife and four daughters.

Newest post on Broadway Economics: The World Will Know

Link here

Excerpt:

Outraged after publisher Joseph Pulitzer increases the cost of newspapers for the delivery boys (“newsies”) to ten cents per hundred, head newsie Jack Kelly organizes a union and ultimately a strike among his fellow newsies. This strike is known in history as the Newsboys’ Strike of 1899.

I am discussing economic issues in the Harrisburg Patriot News

I discussed the economy in a Harrisburg Patriot News article about Donald Trump's "War Zone" comment.

An excerpt:

Indeed, the shift away from manufacturing across central Pennsylvania - as in much of the state, which was once boasted the robust manufacturing of steel, aluminum, textiles, chemicals, metals, furniture and pharmaceuticals, is not a bad thing, Rousu explained.

The fact is that technology has allowed manufacturers to produce more with fewer people, he said.  

Economics of choosing to live stream a Broadway show

BroadwayHD.com is attempting to become like a Broadway version of Netflix.  But in late June they did something that had never been done before - they live-streamed She Loves Me, a current Broadway show.

She Loves Me was a hit show that had always planned to only have a limited run, and indeed it closed on July 10th.  BroadwayHD charged $9.99 to watch the show live on Thursday, June 30.

The economics behind the decision of the producers of She Loves Me to stream is fascinating.  So what are the pros for a show choosing to live stream?

1. It brings in extra immediate revenue (the $9.99*# of viewers)
2. It brings in possible future revenue for the BroadwayHD site (which perhaps pays extra to She Loves Me for this?)
3. It will likely be seen by hundreds of people who run high school, college, and community theatre musicals who might choose to this show.  To use/perform a show, you must pay for the rights, which is a (sometimes significant) source of revenue for shows.
4. It could bring in extra revenue to the show - if people seeing the show on the stream then want to see it in person.  I.e., extra revenue if the live-stream and ticket sales are complements. (Although I don't think this is likely given its only open for a limited amount of time.)

What are the cons of choosing to live stream?

1. Is watching a video of a Broadway show a substitute for seeing the show live?  If so, then the live-stream could hurt ticket sales on Broadway.  Similar to point four above - this doesn't seem to matter as much when the show only has a handful of performances left.
2. Would showing a live-stream hurt the sales of a show that is hoping to tour?    
3. How expensive is it to produce the broadcast?

Overall, it seems like the optimal decision here from a theatre producer's perspective is to live-stream but only at the very end of a run - and only if they think it is unlikely to do a national tour.  

Read what others have written about live-streaming Broadway shows here, here, and here.

Some economic thoughts on London

I'm in London right now.  I've been here for about a week leading a study-abroad trip.  It's been great overall, although unfortunately one student has been quite ill.  (She is getting better, thankfully.)

Some thoughts about London (and beyond London):

* Differences in the exchange rate makes a big difference to London's affordability.  The rate now is about 1.45 dollars/pound vs. 1.60 when I spent four months here in 2012.  But that means everything is about 10% cheaper.  Mentally it seems like London is much more affordable.

* London is expensive, but it only seems more expensive than central Pennsylvania for three reasons: housing is expensive, food at restaurants is expensive, and drinks at restaurants are expensive.  Entertainment, tours, clothing, etc. seem no more expensive than the states.

* West End theatre tickets are less expensive than Broadway.  And it isn't close.  For the cheapest ticket to Funny Girl - I paid 25 pounds.  That converts to about $36.  To compare - I bought a cheap ticket to a musical for June in New York called Waitress - that ticket was about $70.

* The tube is fantastic.  Public transportation only makes sense with a critical mass of people - but it is awesome when you have that.  It is just so convenient.  I recall hearing that the London transportation system (buses, tube, etc.) loses money.  But that's actually OK, as they would have spent some money on roads anyway without this system.

* Cambridge is a lovely city, and punting is fun!

Some pictures

Elaborating on the amount Hamilton ticker resellers make

I was quoted in this Bloomberg story as saying:

At least $30,000 from every show goes to ticket resellers instead of the musical’s investors, producers and cast, according to Matt Rousu, an economics professor at Susquehanna University. With eight shows a week, that comes out to $240,000 every seven days, or almost $12.5 million a year filling the pockets of brokers, he said.

How did I come up with my estimate of $30,000?

Resale tickets rarely sell for less than $800 on ticketmaster.  Some sell for $1500-$2000.  The average price of a ticket from the Richard Rodgers Theatre is about $100-$200.  So that means we can conservatively estimate $600+ per resold ticket is going to resellers.

If you look at Ticketmaster, there are resale tickets available - and usually from 50-200 seats for sale for each show.

If you assume that just 50 tickets are sold on the resale market (likely way too low) and resellers are getting $600 per ticket (also low), you come up with an estimate of "at least $30,000" going to resellers.  In reality, it is probably much more.

Quoted in a Bloomberg story about the musical Hamilton

Link here

It starts:

The Broadway hit “Hamilton” is making millions. It could be making millions more if not for scalpers snapping up seats and hawking them for $2,000 a piece or more.

AAEA Workshop: The “How-To” of Experimental Economics in Agricultural, Environmental & Applied Research

I'm presenting Thursday night ... Free and open to public

I'll be presenting a very brief (trying for 6 minutes) talk on Broadway Economics Thursday night.  The event is free and open to the public, and there are three other professors who will also present (again, in 6 minutes or less).

Here's the write-up distributed by the Honor's Program:

The Honors Program is hosting "360 Second Lectures" with Professor Ramsaran, Professor Kelsey, Professor Rousu, and Professor Viker.​ Join us for an evening featuring distinguished professors sharing their knowledge on various topics of their choice in hopefully under 360 seconds! The event will be held on Thursday, April 21 in Degenstein Meeting Rooms 1-3 at 7:30 PM.

Hope to see you there!

Malnutrition in Cuba

I came across this passage today (link here):

... access to food is the Cuban people’s most pressing daily preoccupation and that many come up so short that, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, malnutrition is the plurality cause for hospital admissions in Cuba (41 percent).

My Q&A about Broadway Economics with ECNMY.ORG

Link here

I am excited about the new website being formed in the UK, ECNMY.ORG, to help make economics more accessible.  They published an interview with me about Broadway Economics, which you can find here.  Excerpt:

From ‘Money Money Money’ (Mamma Mia) to ‘You Gotta Get A Gimmick’ (Gypsy), the site features a stack of songs from many different Broadway shows, from Evita to Once, and provides ways in that make concepts like marginal utility a little less intimidating.

We spoke to the person behind the site, economics professor Matthew Rousu.

Price discrimination in cruise lines

The major cruise lines are great at price discriminating - charging different prices to different consumers based on consumers' willingness-to-pay.  (See my previous post here for evidence.)  I went on a cruise over my spring break and on the first day, three couples were discussing the prices they paid:

Couple #1: Inside Room (which is least desirable).  The total price after taxes and fees was $1550.  This couple booked their trip just one week before the sail-away date.

Couple #2: Inside room.  The total price after taxes and fees was $2300.  This couple booked their trip four months ahead of time.  However, this couple also got a free beverage package (all alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks free throughout the cruise) and several meals at "specialty restaurants".

Couple #3: Balcony room, $2900, booked 4 months ahead of time.  This couple also received the free beverage package and the free meal package.

Another interesting note - couple #2 called a few days before the cruise departed and upgraded to a balcony room for $300 more, making their price $2600 for the exact same package couple #3 received (for $2900).

Three couples and four different prices, all for the same trip.  The cruise lines are good at extracting as much as they can from their customers.

My new piece on the musical Hamilton

http://www.ecnmy.org/engage/hit-broadway-musical-hamilton-provides-perfect-lesson-economics/

Excerpt:

The brilliant tune ‘My Shot’ also illustrates several economic concepts. First, Hamilton sings about going to King’s College (which is now Columbia University) to gain more skills, as he claims “the problem is I’ve gotta lotta brains but no polish”. In another section of the song we hear from the character Mulligan, who’s an apprentice to a tailor. He echoes Hamilton’s aspirational desires when he sings: “I’m joining the rebellion cause I know it’s my chance to socially advance, instead of sewin’ some pants”.

My thoughts on the musical Hamilton

Recently, I had the privilege of seeing Hamilton.  For those not in-the-know, this is THE ticket to get on Broadway right now.  If you try to find tickets, you can no longer find them for less than $300/ticket.  (We got them when the show was still in previews in August for a cheap price, thankfully.)  Some thoughts:


1. After seeing it - I completely agree with NY Times critic Ben Brandtly, who says "Yes, it really is that good".  I can't recommend this show highly enough.  

2. It has many songs that give great illustrations of economic concepts, including Satisfied, The Room Where it Happens, Cabinet Battle #1, and more.  I currently have one song up on BroadwayEconomics.com, My Shot. 


3. The business of how this show operates fascinates me.  They have increased the ticket prices recently, so there are a few rows for about $100, but most tickets are $180.  But they hold back some tickets that they call premium tickets which cost several hundred dollars a ticket.

All this said, one could still argue their tickets are dramatically under-priced.  Why?  They sell for much more on the secondary market.

Here the show has a tough decision.  The producers want to make money, but they'd also like the opportunity for some people without high incomes to get to see the show.  But if they don't price the tickets high enough, ticket resalers simply buy all the tickets immediately, then mark up the price on the secondary market  


4. The musical used to have an in-person lottery, which they called Ham4Ham, where people could put their name in as an attempt to win a $10 front-row seat.  The lottery was a major PR coup for the show, as often 1,000 people would line up in front of the building each day to try to win a ticket - creating major buzz for the show.  But the lottery was so successful that it presented problems for those who actually wanted to drive on the street (or walk past the theatre) so the show went to an online lottery.  This will lower the odds of winning, as the decreased cost of submitting an entry means more entries will be submitted daily.

5. I agree with those who say Hamilton should not be removed from the $10 bill, including what you can read here and here.

6. On the trip, we also saw "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime".  That was also fantastic - one of the best plays I have ever seen.


Here's a clip of the show performing their opening number at the Grammy Awards

My newest paper at Agbioforum

Fifteen Years of Experimental Auctions of GM Foods: What Have We Learned about Policy, Preferences, and Auction Design?

You can download a PDF here.

Abstract:

It was a coincidence that GM foods became ubiquitous at the same time that researchers started using experimental auctions to study consumer preferences for food products. We explore the history of experimental auctions used to study GM food products and how the insights gained have been useful to policy makers. We also examine how experimental auctions of GM food products helped researchers gain insight both into consumer behavior and into best practices for experimental auctions.

When do sports stars have an income tax rate over 100%?

Here are a couple stories highlighting the tax issues faced by athletes:

1. Paying to play in Memphis

Excerpt:

That’s where Johnson comes in. “In certain instances,” Klempner says, “it can actually cost a player money to play in Memphis. It’s completely disproportionate.” Johnson didn’t quite pay to play in Memphis, but there will be cases like his going forward as the Grizz front office uses 10-day contracts to experiment with potential roster fits.

2. California taxes will eat up all of Cam Newton's Super Bowl earnings 

Remember when Peyton Manning paid New Jersey nearly $47,000 in taxes two years ago on his Super Bowl earnings of $46,000? Manning has nothing on the state taxes facing Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton for Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif.

(Note - I know a business operator who says that NC tax laws mean this isn't quite true - as Newton will get a credit on his NC taxes.  At the very least, however, these articles highlight some strange and sub-optimal tax laws.)

Recent additions to Broadway Economics

Shipyard, from the Last Ship

The Winner Takes it All from Mamma Mia

Thoughts on the economics conference (ASSA) and San Francisco

The ASSA conference in early January is the biggest economics conference each year.  Thousands of economists descended this year to San Francisco for three days of fun and frivolity.  (OK, three days of learning about new models, statistical methods, and results – but that’s the same thing, right?)  I was a discussant for one paper and presented a poster on Broadway Economics.  I also saw several good presentations where I learned some things, worked on projects with my co-authors, and met several interesting people.  It was a fantastic conference.

San Francisco, however?  What a dump.  Coming in on the BART (their train), you see many run-down houses that still cost a fortune, because of the insane property restrictions.  It makes you wonder why anyone would live there.  Of course, it might be because they love being accosted by beggars on their dirty streets.  Between the griminess, the beggars, the high property values, high taxes (even on plastic bags - which costs lives), and the other ways it restricts liberty, San Francisco might be my least favorite US city.  It is even in the running with Mexico City and Naples, Italy as far as places I most want to avoid.   (Although I did like Fisherman’s Wharf ...)

My 2015 in review - publications

I had another productive year with research and writing.  I published four articles for lay audiences and also had four scholarly publications in 2015, with three more scholarly articles that have been accepted but are still forthcoming.  Here are the details:


Here are my published opeds or articles for lay audiences:

“Economic Lessons for Children from The Hunger Games.”  Library of Economics and Liberty. December 6, 2015.  http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2015/Rousuhungergames.html

“Here’s what PA should do about the minimum wage.” The Harrisburg Patriot News.  February 27, 2015.  http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2015/02/heres_what_pa_should_do_about.html 

“Three keys to prosperity.”  The Philadelphia Inquirer.  January 20, 2015.

“Changing These Two Laws Would Appropriately Commemorate MLK Day.” The Federalist. January 19, 2015.  http://thefederalist.com/2015/01/19/changing-these-two-laws-would-appropriately-commemorate-mlk-day/ 

Here are my scholarly publications:

Rousu, M.C., R. O’Connor, M. Travers, J. Pitcavage, J.F. Thrasher.  (2015).  “The impact of free trial acceptance on demand for smokeless tobacco: Evidence from Experimental Auctions. Harm Reduction Journal 12(18), http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/12/1/18

Rousu, M.C., J. Corrigan, D. Harris, J. Hayter-Kerns, S. Houser, B. LaFrancis, O. Onafowora, A. Hoffer, G. Colson.  (2015).  “The impact of monetary incentives on game performance and classroom learning.”  Journal of Economic Education 46(4) 341-349.

Rousu, M.C., J Corrigan, G. Colson, C. Grebitus, M. Loureiro.  (2015).  “On developing guidelines for use of deception in agricultural and applied economics.”  Applied Economics Policy and Perspectives 37 (3) 524-536.

Rousu, M., D. Ramsaran, and D. Furlano.  (2015).  “Guidelines for conducting economic impact studies on fracking.”  International Review in Economic Research, 21 (2): 213-225.

(And these are forthcoming ...)

Colson, G., J. Corrigan, C. Grebitus, M. Loureiro, M. Rousu. (2015). “Which deceptive practices, if any, should be allowed in experimental economics research? Results from surveys of applied experimental economists and students.” Forthcoming at the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 

Ramsaran D. and M. Rousu.  (2015).  “Experiencing the Impact of Marcellus Shale: A Case Study.”  Forthcoming at International Journal of Social Economics.

Rousu, M.  (2015). “Fifteen Years of Experimental Auctions of GM Foods: What have we Learned About Policy, Preferences, and Auction Design?”  Forthcoming at Agbioforum.