by Friedrich A. Hayek, 1941.
PART I
INTRODUCTORY
Prices and Production, Lecture 3, The Working of the Price Mechanism in the Course of the Credit Cycle
More income for more happiness ? Yes, but…
After analyzing the NLSY97, it appears that religious and rich people reported to be more happy. But controlling for health reduces the influence of these variables. This holds true not only in the white sample, but also in the hispanic and black samples.
Using Survey data : Some Technical Notes
When using and studying survey data, some difficulties may emerge especially regarding the specific variables being used. And so, several things must be kept in mind.
IQ advantage of multiracials : A Jensen Effect
In the NLSY97, a Jensen Effect of biracial blacks has been found, using self-reported white ancestry. In the NLSY79, some questionnaires (R00096.00, R00097.00) asked about the respondents’ first and second racial/ethnic origin. When the respondent reported being non-black or white in one of the questionnaires and black in the other, he was categorized as being a multiracial.
Using Item Response Theory to assess the Flynn Effect in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 79 Children and Young Adults data
A. Alexander Beaujean, Steven J. Osterlind, 2008.
Abstract
The purpose of this manuscript is to assess the magnitude of the Flynn Effect (i.e., increase in mean IQ scores across time) using Item Response Theory (IRT). Unlike using methods derived from Classical Test Theory, IRT has the capability to determine if the Flynn Effect is due to a genuine increase in intelligence, if it is due to a psychometric artifact (i.e., items changing properties over time), or a combination of the two. Using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised and Peabody Individual Achievement Test—Math from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 79 Children and Young Adults, the results of this study indicate that while using raw and standardized scores, the Flynn Effect is evident in a predicted magnitude, but when using scores based from IRT analysis, the magnitude Flynn Effect substantially decreases, and, at least for the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised, goes away. Thus, for the data used in this study, the Flynn Effect appears to be largely the result of changing item properties instead of changes in cognitive ability.
Independently of income, intelligent people tend to be more libertarian
The NLSY97 contains questionnaires that allows us to create a libertarianism index. The questionnaires, listed below with the SPSS syntax used, having 4 values where, 1= Definitely should be, 2= Probably should be, 3= Probably should not be, 4= Definitely should not be, asked whether or not the government should keep the prices under control, reduce income inequality, provide jobs for everyone, and so on.
