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Ben Golub Profile picture
@ben_golub
Sep 8, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
Haven't been this proud of an acknowledgment in a while! (see next tweet) Image
Image
paper at economics.mit.edu/files/20281
h/t: I learned about the font from @kottke

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More from @ben_golub

Ben Golub Profile picture
Jun 9
I'm delighted that this short survey, a labor of love, is forthcoming in Notices of the AMS later this month.

I'll post a few threads over the next few weeks.

Today: why do eigenvectors keep showing up in models of networks and influence?!

1/Image
In models that show up in networks, typically some matrix M carries the structure: who affects whom, and by how much.

This appears in settings ranging from opinion dynamics to spillovers in organizations to marketplace regulation, with links meaning different things.

2/
Once M has encoded the economic structure, spectral theory helps us answer the question:

which patterns persist, amplify, or determine the eventual outcome?

3/
Read 16 tweets
Ben Golub Profile picture
Feb 23
Citrini spent >100 hrs on his viral AI doomfic.

@RefineInk did about 6 hours of reasoning in about 16 minutes to produce a review explaining what's wrong with it (parallelization ftw).

Its points are on target, I think - short 🧵 and Refine demo.
CapEx black hole.

Profits go to GPUs and "vanish."

But someone builds the data centers, manufactures the chips, generates the electricity.

That's income to someone. The paper needs to explain why this capital recycling fails to sustain demand. It doesn't try.

2/Image
Search costs and price discovery may be easy to arb; trust, liability, fraud regulation are not.

The piece treats all of these as equally collapsible.

A 38–57% equity drawdown requires that regulatory and legal barriers fail simultaneously. It's never explained why they would. Image
Read 5 tweets
Ben Golub Profile picture
Jan 18
If you do applied math (broadly - CS, stats, physics, . . .) - a request/freebie:

Refine is a tool that reads papers and finds technical issues, like a referee.

We want researchers in diverse areas to try it.

If you're willing to, read on.

1/ Image
We'll give you free reviews, useful to stress-test a paper before submission or circulation.
(Users say it's similar to at least 4h of expert reading.)

In exchange, all we ask is you write a brief, fully honest reaction on X, LinkedIn, or any similar platform.

2/
Then we'll give you more free reviews, which you can keep or give as a gift to others.

If you're interested, please DM me. We'll do about 10 researchers for this first trial.

Conditions: PhD student or later, not in economics/finance/game theory.

3/
Read 5 tweets
Ben Golub Profile picture
Nov 28, 2025
This NYT article on the "golden age" of air travel is an amazing example of an unthinking journalist failing to make contact with reality.

The narrative: air travel used to be much better, but less affordable.

1/ Image
The two big quality dimensions are comfort and safety. The article obsesses over comfort while ignoring safety entirely.

But it's wrong on both, so let's take them in turn.

2/
On comfort: the 1958 economy passenger paid ~$3,300 one-way to Paris in today's money.

Today, that price still gets you china and champagne.

But also a flat bed in a private suite with a big TV and wifi.

Transcontinental routes offer similar amenities.

3/
Read 9 tweets
Ben Golub Profile picture
Oct 23, 2025
I am super excited to share a new AI tool, Refine.

Refine thoroughly studies research papers like a referee and finds issues with correctness, clarity, and consistency.

In my own papers, it regularly catches problems that my coauthors and I missed.

1/ Image
We’ve been beta testing it with frontier research in areas from social science to applied mathematics to computational biology to philosophy.

Refine is already in use by editors and referees at top journals.

2/
Researchers find the comments thorough and helpful, exceeding the performance of top models like ChatGPT Pro.

3/
Read 8 tweets
Ben Golub Profile picture
Oct 12, 2025
This terribly misguided paper is making the rounds.

This thread is to make it common knowledge what is wrong with it.

The basic thing: all modern economic theory allows for a gap between individual maximization and efficiency, whatever you mean exactly by each of these.

1/
The first welfare theorem (individual optimization implies social efficiency) breaks down in the presence of frictions -

e.g., incomplete markets, asymmetric information, externalities, and market power.

Most economics today is about these frictions.

2/
Now, the paper has some halfhearted recognition of this, but says, effectively

"Well, you know, there is some meta-stage in which institutions are chosen, and economics assumes that this choice will be made to kill all frictions except the efficient ones."

3/
Read 7 tweets

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