The Whims of a Lottery

A rigged lottery or a chance fluctuation? Another probability problem for the reader to test his or her feeling for probabilities.

Probability Puzzles with a Crazy Santa Claus

For your enjoyment and instruction, this column contains six challenging probability puzzles of varying difficulty with sometimes surprising solutions. Som...

The Effect of Ozone Air Pollution on Physical Capacity

Scholars from various scientific disciplines work on understanding the impact of air pollution. Most of the studies focus on long-term health consequences,...

Investing and Gambling with Kelly

The Kelly strategy, also known as the scientific gambling method, is a powerful money management system. This article outlines how this system works.

Tackle Big Questions. Use Big Data

Interview with Fatih Guvenen (The Curtis L. Carlson professor of economics at the University of Minnesota and a research associate in the NBER’s Econ...

Benford Goes to the Casino

You’re strolling past a casino and you notice an eye-grabbing sign: The Multiplication Game, Carpe Diem

Empty Homes, Longer Commutes: Effects of more Restrictive Local Planning

We have argued for a very long time that the fundamental problem with housing in Britain is a lack of supply: we have been underbuilding for two generation...

Development Beyond Economics

Interview with Pascaline Dupas (Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Stanford University, Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Re...

Untangling Real Gravity

Jan Tinbergen was one of the first to borrow the gravity equation from physics to explain bilateral trade flows.

• Macroeconomics