On many occasions playing around with data, I've produced a graph that invariably ends up on my twitter feed without much context. This post serves as a running repository of some of my favorite graphs that I've produced. Where possible, I link to the original tweet in the title.

  1. Laughter and the FOMC

Unfortunately, FOMC minutes are released with a 5 year lag, so it will be a while before we can track these variables through the Powell chairmanship and the COVID recession.

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  1. A Tale of Two Box Offices

Motivated by Ross Douthat's column discussing the divergence between "popular" firms (i.e. high box office) and acclaimed films (high critic ratings), I charted the intersection of these two categories over time. These days, almost no film in the Box Office Top #10 is nominated for an Academy Award.

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  1. The COVID Research Boom

My weekly NBER working paper emails doubled in length in the aftermath of COVID, as economists scrambled to put out papers with new data before others could.

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  1. Unbeatable Sports Records

The New York Times had a fantastic feature on just how incredible Stephen Curry's 402 three point season in 2015-2016 was. But how does it compare to some other off-the-charts sports records, like Barry Bonds' 688 bases-on-balls? Roughly equating the distributions of remaining players, Bonds' record seems (shockingly) more impressive. It doesn't help that three point shots are trending up.

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  1. "Competent" Research Assistance

Since coauthorship is a rare gem in economics, Econ RA's must content themselves with a small shoutout in the acknowledgements section of papers, (hopefully) with an appropriate adjective attached. Personally, I've achieved an "invaluable", an "excellent", and an "outstanding," though what I'd really like is an "inspired."

  1. Home Run Launch Angles

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Since the development of Statcast, analysts have been able to track the exit velocity and launch angle of all batted balls. Giancarlo’s walk off home on September 20, 2022 runs place him in elite company as one of the few batters to hit a home run at a launch angle of less than 16 degrees.

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