Ryan H Murphy
Biographic Data
| ID | 255275 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ryan H Murphy |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ryan H |
| FAMILY NAME | Murphy |
| SIGNATURE | MURPHY R H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Methodist University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2596-8750 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Pronoun Drop as an Instrumental Variable
A growing literature in comparative economics uses linguistic structure in empirical work to explain differences in culture and economic behavior, through the theoretical mechanism of linguistic relativity (or the “Sapir–Whorf hypothesis”). This paper explores the usage of one of these variables, pronoun drop, which denotes whether or not a language makes the first‐person subject pronouns optional, and its application as an instrument for culture…
Contestable Monopolies on Violence: Polycentricity, Rebel Groups and Institutional Quality
Social Repression and Variation within the Human Freedom Index
The Human Freedom Index combines the Economic Freedom of the World index with other data measuring different dimensions of negative freedom to create a complete measure of human freedoms. While the properties of Economic Freedom of the World have been studied at length, relatively little has been done to assess the properties of the Human Freedom Index . We use principal component analysis, k-means clustering, and factor analysis to explore the d…
Neutral Theory, Stochasticity, and the Efficiency of Social Institutions
This paper draws on the concept of neutral theory from molecular biology to describe how rational choice foundations may be given to cultural practices or social institutions such that the specifics of the practice or institution are inherently arbitrary, that is, stochastic. Neutral theory describes the process by which genes at the molecular level may propagate across a species without conferring any benefit in terms of evolutionary fitness. Li…
Prediction markets as meta-episteme: Artificial intelligence, forecasting tournaments, prediction markets, and economic growth
This paper presents a speculative framework suggesting that prediction markets (or its epistemic cousins such as artificial intelligence or forecasting tournaments) may constitute a break in the expansion of human knowledge in a manner similar to the impact of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. Just as the scientific understanding of the natural world facilitated the development of useful technologies to move far faster than what is allow…
Freedom through taxation: The effect of fiscal capacity on the rule of law
The Expansive Corridor: Testing Acemoglu and Robinson (2019)
In The Narrow Corridor, Acemoglu and Robinson create a compelling narrative concerning the relationship between the power of states, the power of societies, and economic development, illustrated with a series of historical vignettes. Using a recently constructed historical dataset of state capacity, we provide a series of formal and informal tests of their hypothesis. We first visualise the historical paths of the strength of society and the stre…
Stefon Dercon: Gambling on development: Why some countries win and others lose. London: Hurst, 2022. 398 pages. USD $34.95 (hardback)
The clear expectation of cultural betterment in the face of rising living standards
Rising Real Gross Domestic Product Per Capita data indicates rises in living standards. Nonetheless, cultural pessimism is the received view. This paper makes a series of arguments that we should expect our cultural products (e.g. art or cuisine) to be on an upwards trajectory, just as RGDP per capita is. To do so, I expand on Bill James's "Peripheral Quality Indicia" in order to argue that analogous indicators for our cultural products strongly …
Economic freedom at metropolitan statistical area borders
This paper applies a variation on differences-in-differences to the effects of economic freedom in matched bordering metropolitan statistical areas using the Metropolitan Economic Freedom Index. While a great deal of research has explored the relationship between economic freedom and economic performance, less has been done at the local level. We find that economic freedom has a positive effect on several measures of economic performance, but no …
New complementary perspectives for inpatient physical function assessment: Matched clinician-report and patient-report short form measures from the PROMIS adult physical function item bank
Two item content-matched SFs have been developed for clinician and patient reporting and are an effective, efficient means of assessing inpatient PF and offer complementary perspectives
State capacity, economic freedom, and classical liberalism
An Index Measuring State Capacity, 1789–2018
This paper contributes to the literature on state capacity by developing a method that yields an index of state capacity with far more comprehensive data coverage across time and countries than has been possible previously. Unlike narrower measures of fiscal capacity or legal capacity, the index is more comprehensive, using data from the Varieties of Democracy dataset on fiscal capacity, a state's control over its territory, the rule of law, and …
Governance and the dimensions of autocracy
Choice
An expressive voting model of anger, hatred, harm and shame
The willingness-to-pay for Caplanian irrationality
Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter popularizes the "near-neoclassical" demand curve for irrationality. This article attempts to show that there is a demand for irrationality at prices higher than zero. This may change policy implications. Many instances of consumer behavior, such as paying a premium for locally produced and "fair trade" goods, the use of local currencies, and the failure to vaccinate children, are other instances of th…
Does immigration impact institutions
An Index Measuring State Capacity, 1789–2018
This paper contributes to the literature on state capacity by developing a method that yields an index of state capacity with far more comprehensive data coverage across time and countries than has been possible previously. Unlike narrower measures of fiscal capacity or legal capacity, the index is more comprehensive, using data from the Varieties of Democracy dataset on fiscal capacity, a state's control over its territory, the rule of law, and …
Does immigration impact institutions
Prediction markets as meta-episteme: Artificial intelligence, forecasting tournaments, prediction markets, and economic growth
This paper presents a speculative framework suggesting that prediction markets (or its epistemic cousins such as artificial intelligence or forecasting tournaments) may constitute a break in the expansion of human knowledge in a manner similar to the impact of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. Just as the scientific understanding of the natural world facilitated the development of useful technologies to move far faster than what is allow…
The clear expectation of cultural betterment in the face of rising living standards
Rising Real Gross Domestic Product Per Capita data indicates rises in living standards. Nonetheless, cultural pessimism is the received view. This paper makes a series of arguments that we should expect our cultural products (e.g. art or cuisine) to be on an upwards trajectory, just as RGDP per capita is. To do so, I expand on Bill James's "Peripheral Quality Indicia" in order to argue that analogous indicators for our cultural products strongly …
An expressive voting model of anger, hatred, harm and shame
Does immigration impact institutions
The willingness-to-pay for Caplanian irrationality
Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter popularizes the "near-neoclassical" demand curve for irrationality. This article attempts to show that there is a demand for irrationality at prices higher than zero. This may change policy implications. Many instances of consumer behavior, such as paying a premium for locally produced and "fair trade" goods, the use of local currencies, and the failure to vaccinate children, are other instances of th…
An expressive voting model of anger, hatred, harm and shame
Governance and the dimensions of autocracy
Choice
New complementary perspectives for inpatient physical function assessment: Matched clinician-report and patient-report short form measures from the PROMIS adult physical function item bank
Two item content-matched SFs have been developed for clinician and patient reporting and are an effective, efficient means of assessing inpatient PF and offer complementary perspectives
State capacity, economic freedom, and classical liberalism
An Index Measuring State Capacity, 1789–2018
This paper contributes to the literature on state capacity by developing a method that yields an index of state capacity with far more comprehensive data coverage across time and countries than has been possible previously. Unlike narrower measures of fiscal capacity or legal capacity, the index is more comprehensive, using data from the Varieties of Democracy dataset on fiscal capacity, a state's control over its territory, the rule of law, and …
Freedom through taxation: The effect of fiscal capacity on the rule of law
The Expansive Corridor: Testing Acemoglu and Robinson (2019)
In The Narrow Corridor, Acemoglu and Robinson create a compelling narrative concerning the relationship between the power of states, the power of societies, and economic development, illustrated with a series of historical vignettes. Using a recently constructed historical dataset of state capacity, we provide a series of formal and informal tests of their hypothesis. We first visualise the historical paths of the strength of society and the stre…
Stefon Dercon: Gambling on development: Why some countries win and others lose. London: Hurst, 2022. 398 pages. USD $34.95 (hardback)
The clear expectation of cultural betterment in the face of rising living standards
Rising Real Gross Domestic Product Per Capita data indicates rises in living standards. Nonetheless, cultural pessimism is the received view. This paper makes a series of arguments that we should expect our cultural products (e.g. art or cuisine) to be on an upwards trajectory, just as RGDP per capita is. To do so, I expand on Bill James's "Peripheral Quality Indicia" in order to argue that analogous indicators for our cultural products strongly …
Economic freedom at metropolitan statistical area borders
This paper applies a variation on differences-in-differences to the effects of economic freedom in matched bordering metropolitan statistical areas using the Metropolitan Economic Freedom Index. While a great deal of research has explored the relationship between economic freedom and economic performance, less has been done at the local level. We find that economic freedom has a positive effect on several measures of economic performance, but no …
Prediction markets as meta-episteme: Artificial intelligence, forecasting tournaments, prediction markets, and economic growth
This paper presents a speculative framework suggesting that prediction markets (or its epistemic cousins such as artificial intelligence or forecasting tournaments) may constitute a break in the expansion of human knowledge in a manner similar to the impact of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. Just as the scientific understanding of the natural world facilitated the development of useful technologies to move far faster than what is allow…
Contestable Monopolies on Violence: Polycentricity, Rebel Groups and Institutional Quality
Social Repression and Variation within the Human Freedom Index
The Human Freedom Index combines the Economic Freedom of the World index with other data measuring different dimensions of negative freedom to create a complete measure of human freedoms. While the properties of Economic Freedom of the World have been studied at length, relatively little has been done to assess the properties of the Human Freedom Index . We use principal component analysis, k-means clustering, and factor analysis to explore the d…
Neutral Theory, Stochasticity, and the Efficiency of Social Institutions
This paper draws on the concept of neutral theory from molecular biology to describe how rational choice foundations may be given to cultural practices or social institutions such that the specifics of the practice or institution are inherently arbitrary, that is, stochastic. Neutral theory describes the process by which genes at the molecular level may propagate across a species without conferring any benefit in terms of evolutionary fitness. Li…
Pronoun Drop as an Instrumental Variable
A growing literature in comparative economics uses linguistic structure in empirical work to explain differences in culture and economic behavior, through the theoretical mechanism of linguistic relativity (or the “Sapir–Whorf hypothesis”). This paper explores the usage of one of these variables, pronoun drop, which denotes whether or not a language makes the first‐person subject pronouns optional, and its application as an instrument for culture…
Economics (13 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Mathematics (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Positive economics (4 works) · Public finance (4 works)