Gifts for Political Scientists, 2020

Cyber Monday Purchase Online  - JoshuaWoroniecki / Pixabay

It is Cyber Monday and the gift-purchasing season started sometime last week; it is now even more unclear to me when Black Friday actually starts. It has been a few years since my previous entries in this series and the circumstances of 2020 warrant a new list as the demands of our profession have changed. Even with the hopeful resumption of normal in-person classes by Fall 2020, the ability and demand for remote teaching is going to be higher in 2022 than it was in 2019. To see the previous entries in this series, see years 2010 and 2013. Home Continue reading Gifts for Political Scientists, 2020

Poker is a game of skill

The New York Times (this may cost you one of your monthly alloted articles) reports on a new article by Levitt and Miles that argues that poker is a game of skill and not a game of chance.  The policy-relevant implications for the study deals with legalization – several prohibitions against poker are codified with terminology that prohibits gambling and randomized lotteries while allowing for skilled based gaming. The authors track a set of known players from the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP).  The study indicates that "good" poker players do get returns on their tournament buyins (seen as Continue reading Poker is a game of skill