Constance L Hunter
12.8K posts
@ConstanceHunter
Macroeconomist|Triangulating Data|@nberpubs Board|Data Junkie|Policy Wonk|my own views| #Econ101 #SecretLivesOfEconomists
Sleeping <6h a night for 2 weeks reduces cognitive performance equal to 2 nights of total sleep deprivation.
The scariest finding in this paper: the subjects couldn't tell it was happening. UPenn ran this study on 48 healthy adults. One group slept 8 hours. Another slept 6. Another slept 4. For 14 straight days. They tested cognitive performance every 2 hours from 7:30am to 11:30pm. The 6-hour group's reaction times, working memory, and sustained attention deteriorated on a near-linear curve. By day 14 they were performing at the same level as someone who hadn't slept at all in 48 hours. The 4-hour group hit that threshold by day 6. Here's the part that should unsettle everyone who thinks they "do fine" on 6 hours: the subjects' self-reported sleepiness flatlined after the first few days. Their brains kept getting worse. Their perception of how impaired they were stopped updating. The cognitive decline was invisible to the person experiencing it. The researchers found a hard threshold. Any wakefulness beyond 15.84 hours in a day produces cumulative neurobiological cost. That cost compounds every single day you exceed it and does not reset with a weekend of sleeping in. About 35% of American adults sleep less than 7 hours a night. 40% of those get 6 hours or less. In 1942 that number was 11%. We built an entire professional culture around a sleep schedule that this paper says is functionally equivalent to pulling consecutive all-nighters. "I'm fine on 6 hours" is the most common response to sleep research. The first thing chronic sleep debt destroys is your ability to notice chronic sleep debt.
US crude exports are about to boom.
Saudi Arabia confirms hits to the critical East-West pipeline (a pumping station), which led to a 700 kbpd throughput loss. As well as confirmed strikes to upstream production assets (!!) that have reduced Saudi production *capacity* by 600 kbpd. On top of downstream refining/processing attacks. Official Saudi Press Agency:
New research from @PeterBlairHenry and colleagues indicates that directing savings from advanced economies into public investments like road infrastructure in developing economies can create substantial unrealized gains not captured in traditional data. ow.ly/I35K50YCMfI
BREAKING🚨: Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch officially becomes the farthest any woman has ever traveled from Earth.
Saying $4 gas isn’t especially high on an inflation-adjusted basis is incredibly tone-deaf, but is also true.
as an analyst, this map is something rarely seen but exciting to see- economics in practice. diesel prices are lowest for inland areas, due to the inability to easily export these barrels, where as coastal regions are subject to global market tightness as product can move freely
Harvard economist Claudia Goldin helped WNBA players win a nearly 400% pay raise on.wsj.com/47yGzai
What's something that experts/practitioners in your field universally agree upon, but that remains a "hot take" among the general public?
Cheapest diesel is generally buried deep inland, while states closer to/with export ability see higher prices due to more competition for those gallons.
