Ben's Instagram Jul. - Sep. 2013

Ever wondered what Ellis would look like fat? Here's your chance. Henry's a little concerned for his brother's well-being. #wearingallofhisjammies

Good morning, Boston. Did you miss me? Took me nearly two weeks to make it back here... #viewfrommyhotel #econconference

Successful fishing trip with my dad. #flyfishing #whitefish #youshouldseetheonethatgotaway

This is Ellis, passed out in the back seat, wearing Mardi Gras beads. Draw your own conclusions. #latergram

One of the biggest surprises of this trip has been how comfortable Sam is with the characters at theme parks. In this picture, I'm pretty sure Lego Darth Vader is the one who's uncomfortable, based on where Sam is standing. #betweenthelegs

On day 3 of the family reunion, Henry and Ellis have succumbed to the influence of their heathen cousins.#wrestlingmatch #noshirtsallowed

For a kid who grew up idolizing Maverick and Goose, the tour of the USS Midway in San Diego is totally rad.#childofthe80s #topgun #latergram

Did you know that aircraft carriers have giant steering wheels just like old pirate ships? Here's Henry trying his hand at the helm. #latergram

When someone asks you how many monitors you need, I believe that the correct answer is "more."

We have a new bike rider! So glad to not live on a giant hill so Henry could finally learn! In less than 30 minutes he was completely on his own.

And on the sixth week, Jenn said, "let there be light." And behold, Ben did remove the the ceiling fan, which was full of darkness, and did install a chandelier, and behold, there was light. And there was much rejoicing.#handyman #workedonthefirsttry

Finally hanging pictures! #bostonshrine#missingnewengland

In Tokyo! If the picture looks blurry, that's how it looks after you've been on a plane for 13 hours. #thankgoodnessicanreadthenumbers #econconference

This friendly limousine bus dropped me off right at my hotel. #theydriveontheleft #everythingisfriendly

Gift! #japaneseusingenglish

In the fancy schmancy part of Tokyo. #ginzadistrict

Had sushi at one of the most famous sushi restaurants in Tokyo. It was the real deal: remove your shoes, sit on the floor, only chopsticks allowed, 15,000 yen per person. Turns out, I still don't like sushi. #wastedonme #stillgladididit

Japan: world's leading producer of things that make you go, "huh?"

With only enough time to do one touristy thing before going to the airport, I settled on the Meiji Shrine, a forested area of Tokyo dedicated to a previous emperor of Japan. I think it was a good choice. Super cool place to visit.

Work gloves have sure come a long way since I was a teenager working in my parents' garden. I used to feel like Mickey Mouse with them on, now I feel like Ethan Hunt. #missionimpossible #handyman

If there's any place more soul-sucking than the DMV, I've never been there.

If you're ever in Tucson, the Titan Missile Silo is definitely worth the time. #latergram #bigmissile #coldwar

Adios, Tucson! Thanks @captlogan & @autumniverson for a great weekend!

The Iversons are now a 2-car family. #altima #somedayillgetanaudi #beatstheminivan

Somehow the boys didn't have a hard time coming up with answers to our dinnertime question tonight.

The Ramble: What does a professor do?

The Ramble has been on a hiatus over the past few months due to the stresses of finding a job, moving, and some incredible summer vacations.  But now it's back!  And, even better, now it's being written by a bonafide Ph.D., who has a real job!

Speaking of that job, today's topic covers a question that I hear fairly regularly when I describe what being a professor is like:  "Okay, so if you don't spend that much time teaching, what exactly do you do?"

It's a fair question.  Before I answer it, let me back up just a bit and give you my preferred job description:

1. Learn things that others have discovered
2. Discover new knowledge
3. Share what you have learned

That pretty much covers everything that a tenure-track professor is trying to do.  (A brief aside: isn't that kind of an awesome job description?  I'm pretty happy to have that be my job)  Now, most people only interact with professors in the classroom, so they envision classroom teaching as being the main part of a professor's job.  In reality, most professors spend far more time on research than on teaching.  For example, this year I'm only teaching 2 sections of a single course.  That's it.  Next year will be the same.  And, since those two sections are in the same quarter, that means that I teach for 10 weeks of the year, and research the rest of the time.  After I've taught the course a couple of times so that I've got the material down, teaching really won't take much of my time at all.

That's not to say that teaching is less important (although, sadly, many professors kind of feel that way), just that it's not where we spend a huge portion of our time.  The reason for that is that creating new, meaningful knowledge is incredibly hard to do, so we spend a lot of time doing it.

And here's where I always get the question, "so what do you do all day?"  My answer is typically, "I do research."  But most people have a hard time conceptualizing how an economist does research.  Autumn's vision of it was me sitting in my office, spinning around in my chair and dreaming up new ideas.  :)  Unfortunately, it's not quite like that.

Really, I do research by following the scientific method that we all learned in 7th grade:
1. Ask a question
2. Do background research
3. Form a hypothesis
4. Test the hypothesis
5. Analyze data and form a conclusion
6. Communicate the results
When I started my Ph.D. five years ago, I was most worried about step #1--I was worried it would be tough to come up with new, relevant questions to ask.  Turns out, I've rarely had a shortage of good research questions that I'd like to work on.  There's just so much we don't know in economics, that good research questions are all over the place.

What's really hard about research in economics is actually step #4.  Unlike "typical" scientists, I don't have a lab where I can actually run experiments to test my hypotheses.  Without a nice, controlled environment, it's often very difficult to really nail down what is causing what in a typical economy.  One classic example of this: we can prove that people that go to more school make a lot more money.  But, is schooling really causing increased wages?  Or is it that people who are smart tend to go to school more and make more money?  The truth is probably a little bit of both, but it sure would be nice to know exactly how much an extra year of schooling is really worth.  It's an important question, but knowing the answer is just really difficult.  To really nail down the answer, we would need to randomly assign some kids an extra year of schooling, and then track them over their entire lifetimes to see how much more they earn.  Obviously, that's just not going to happen.

So, what to do instead?  I spend a lot of my time looking for and exploiting natural experiments--changes to laws, odd rules, companies creating new products--anything that might "naturally" shock the economy that let's me tease out what is really going on.  Once I've found that, it's mostly a matter of collecting data, running analysis and writing a paper about it.  All of that can easily take months just for a single paper, but the key, for most of what I do, is to find that natural experiment.

Once the paper is written, it's still far from being published, however.  At that point, you submit it to conferences and you send it out to people looking for feedback.  Hopefully that feedback is constructive and helps you fine-tune things so that you've got a well-polished paper after a few months.  And then, you submit it to a journal, and pray that the referees (other academics who review your paper) like your work and recommend that the journal publish it.  The refereeing/publishing process can take several more months, or even years at times.  Rarely is a paper published at the first journal it is sent to, and you just keep polishing the paper and submitting it until (hopefully) it sticks somewhere.

And then what?  The paper is finally published, but who cares?  Does it just sit in some obscure academic journal, where no one will ever read it?  Well, I hope not.  Ideally, all of that work you did gets absorbed by other academics, who might start new projects based on your research, or will perhaps incorporate it into their classrooms.  It may even make it into a textbook someday.  Also, I've been surprised at the number of media outlets that regularly cover academic results.  In short, the knowledge really does get out there, as long as it is useful in some way.  Each paper is only a very, very small piece of the puzzle, but I think it really is important to build that knowledge.

So, that's what I do.  Well, that, and spin around in my chair going, "wheee!!!!"  :)

Let me know in the comments if there is something you'd like to have a future Ramble cover.  I'm open to suggestions!

Fame finally comes to Ben

In case you missed the New York Times last week, Ben was on the front page of the science and health sections!  His face was popping up all over the Times.  Lest you think he was being quoted for his robust economic research, I will point out that he is, in fact, a famous testosterone study participant.  What would you do for $1000 and your picture in the paper?

Just read the article!  I don't think Ben has ever been more embarrassed in his life, and I don't think I have ever laughed so hard . . .

It has been a good week.

Ellis' Balloon Party!

Can you believe that this little boy is FIVE years old?  He is just eight days late for the Kindergarten cutoff, so here he is on his first day of preschool.  His face in this picture is so classic Ellis, and it reminds me that four has been a really good year for us.  A year of progress.  I will be the first to admit - three was hard.  Over the past year, he and I have arrived in a much better place.  I can now honestly say that this unique, clever, adorable, stubborn-as-a-mule boy now brings me joy every single day.  Not every single minute, but where would the challenge be in that?  I think I have learned most of my parenting skills because of this boy!  I really, truly, absolutely love my Ellis. 

 And as you know, I express my love in the form of sugar!  

Ellis (thankfully - life is crazy right now) chose to have a "Balloon Birthday Party," which is a repeat from Henry several years ago.  But instead of balloon cupcakes, Ellis wanted cake pops.  Who wouldn't?

The boys helped me put together favor bags with even more sugar.

 Cute, yet simple.  You know what I mean?

Our screen porch had its very first party!  I've decided we need twinkle lights out here for the next party. 

 Let the party begin!  We started out with a reading of "The Lost Balloon" by Ben.

The book was from the Cheerios box!  It is about a girl who lets go of a balloon with a message attached to it. 

 So naturally, we had to make enemies with our environmentally-friendly neighbors by sending off our own balloons.

 But look!  The kids loved it!

Ellis requested a repeat of the great COLOR CHANGING WATER trick from last year's party.  That trick is always a hit!  And yes, this is our babysitting co-op group, so we served chicken nuggets and grapes for dinner (Ellis' choice). 

Balloons on the wall contained the name of each activity:

 Rocket balloons

 Water balloon toss

 (which turned out to be a water balloon fight, to Ellis' delight)

There were more activities: 

Punching ball dance

Balloon stomp (with balloons tied to their ankles)

Hot potato

500 with a water balloon

"keep it up" (don't let balloon touch the ground game)

 Then we went back into the porch for cake (through the doggy door, of course.  What else would we do?)

 Cake pops all aglow

 And the five-year-old wishing away

 Seriously.  Ellis is such an important part of my life.  I don't think I would be who I am without him.  He brings laughter and life and energy into our home.  He works hard and is always a finisher.  And he helps me remember the names of all the people we are meeting - at church, school, the soccer field, etc.  

And isn't he adorable too?  Happy birthday, Ellis!

Latergrams: In which summertime ends with a bang and we start becoming real parents

 Meet Sam, King of the House today!  He chose to have his breakfast (Apple Jacks) in the jogging stroller.  #samkingofthehouse #oneboytorulethemall #andanolderbrotherwithpowerissues #worstdayeverforellis

The King's activity of choice: sprinkler time with the brothers!  He requested to wear "only my feet" today, meaning no shoes or socks.  #samkingofthehouse 

The Coughrans win the prize for being our first visitors! They have a wedding in the area and get to stay with us for two nights.  #bostonfriendsforever #iforeseeagamenight

Swim Camp = swim lessons for slacker moms who waited all summer and now need to knock out all the lessons in one week (or maybe two?)  #bigblue #happyboys #firsttimeforellis 

The School District's version of the RMV/DMV.  We waited for 15 minutes before we heard a single number called.  And the number she called was 6.  #thiscouldtakeawhile #redtape #waitingwiththreekids 

Not quite Russo's, but I think I may have found a new happy place.  #thefreshmarketwilmette #theclassicalmusicgotme #nostalgicforrussos #beautifulfoodgavemechills #pricescouldbebetter 

 Happiness is . . . discovering neighbor kids (finally!), and - Ellis' dram come true - a water balloon fight!  #happyday #thisissummer

 Who knew we had so much music?  Now we have a lovely little place to put it!  #musiccabinet #aplaceforeverything #ilovetarget #threshold #livingroom

 After six months of saving, begging, pleading, and eating cereal with milk, Henry and Ellis accumulated $150.  Meet the world's newest, happiest, proudest Wii owners!  #wiiconvert #neverwantedgaming #inmyhouse #embracingtheboy #happiestboys

Sam getting in on the action.  #threecoaches #malebonding #wiiboxing 

 A new, slightly more tyrannical king.  #elliskingofthehouse #naturalruler #chooseschildrensmuseum #andlotsofwii

The real question is, Lou Malnati's or Giordano's?  #chicagotastetest #giordanosnexttime #thisplacehasitsperks #anditsownspeciesofpizza 

 Just finished this little BBC mini series, "Little Dorrit," and loved it!  Think Dickens getting in touch with his inner Jane Austen.  #littledorrit #charlesdickens #ilovebbc #andilovethatbenlovesbbc

 So I'm pretty sure Ellis is in love with his swimming teacher.  #littlebitflirty #cutestteacherever

 Garbage truck knocked over this heavy basketball standard . . . right in the spot where I used to park our car.  I started parking it 15 feet back last week.  #tendermercy

 Triathlete in training.  Henry jogged with me this morning, then had swim lessons, then practiced his bike riding.  I'm pretty proud of this boy who would normally rather stay inside and read.  #bookwormturnedathlete 

 Tell me, friends, how long does it take to get used to wearing these things?  I'm on my third day, and it feels like I'm chopping onions every time I wear them (and for hours afterward).  And now I have a huge headache.  Is this normal?  #firstcontactsever #sensitiveeyes 

Rainy day activity.  #moneyboxes #woodburning #summervacationbucketlist #henrycraftoftheday 

 Me.  Driving in downtown Chicago for the first time.  And my heart rate only went up about 10 beats per minute, as opposed to 100 when I first drove in NYC eight years ago.  #utahgirl #bigcitydriver #whoknew?

 Still remembering last night's beignets.  It was a lovely first date night in Chicago, courtesy of Kara and Dave.  #grandluxcafe #graduationpresent 

 Wouldn't want to get labelled as the "normal" new kid.  Second graders like kids who stand out . . . right?  #firstday #backpackonhead #headpack?

 One of the most awesome features of our house.  #puppydoor

 Since I didn't get a picture of my overturned shopping cart, I offer you a picture of the treat I used to console myself after a nightmarish trip to Trader Joe's.  first, I trusted my stupid GPS and spent an extra 45 minutes in the car looking for a store that doesn't exist.  And then after shopping and getting the kids buckled in, I backed up and tipped over the shopping cart I had forgotten to unload.  Wish I had a picture of my watermelon rolling across the parking lot!  #adayinthelife #worthitforthechocolate

 Look who's having lunch with me!  #lunchwithmom #amazingburgers #butcherandtheburger

 Needless to say, I totally lost.  #scrabblenight #undefeatablemom #scrabblelegend

 One happy preschooler; one sad little brother at home.  #brotherlylove #beingyoungestisrough 

More and more lately, Ben is starting to remind me of a "real dad." #soccercoachpreview #takingthisseriously