prior probability

That is the title of this theoretical paper by Robert Bosch, Robert Fathauer, and Henry Segerman. Here is the 32-word abstract: “We discuss what it might mean for a die to be numerically balanced, explore connections with magic squares, and present integer programming models that can be used to design numerically balanced dice.” (H/t: Cliff Pickover, via Twitter.)

The Coase theorem applies to situations involving economic externalities, i.e. activities that produce harmful effects. It states that bargaining will lead to an economically efficient outcome, regardless of the initial allocation of property rights, when three conditions are met: (1) when property rights are well-defined, (2) when trade in the externality is not prohibited by law, and (3) when the costs of trading are low relative to the value of the right being traded.

Traditionally, economists and lawyers have used the Coase theorem to study such prosaic problems as cattle trespass and pollution. But could this theorem apply to moral externalities or other intangible types of harmful effects, such as late-term abortions? By way of example, according to this report in The Washington Post: “A Maryland abortion clinic, one of only a few that provides late-term abortions to women in the United States, plans to close its doors and is under contract to be purchased by an antiabortion group that has worked for many years to shut it down, according to an official with the coalition that has plans to buy it. If the sale goes through this fall, the new owners of the Germantown clinic will soon be owned by the Maryland Coalition for Life, a grass-roots organization that has staged regular protests at the clinic and, in 2011, opened up a crisis pregnancy center across the parking lot to counsel women against choosing abortion.” Is this not an example of the Coase theorem in action?

Zachary Abel’s work (pictured below) is a hollow sphere of 720 interwoven paperclips in the shape of a snub soccer ball. (Hat tip: Cliff Pickover.)

What’s going on here? Why won’t these people sell their lottery tickets? Endowment effect? Anticipated regret? Market failure? (Hat tip: Alex Tabarrok, via Marginal Revolution. More details here, via kottke.org.)

1. Daniel Lemire

2. James Roper

3. Wikipedia

What’s up with the proliferation of fake stop signs, especially on privately-owned roads and shopping center parking lots? Our student Gabriel Feliciano brought to our attention this fascinating thread on fake stop signs. Our recommendation: in place of fake stop signs, why don’t shopping centers and private subdivisions install yellow signs with the word SLOW instead? (Traffic expert John Carr explains the difference between “real stop signs and decorative red octagons” here.)

If you missed yesterday’s total eclipse of the sun (21 August 2017), the next one will occur in less than seven years (8 April 2024). (Bonus material: Walter Cronkite reports on the 1979 eclipse, and here is a collection of the best photographs and videos of the 2017 eclipse. Double hat tip: Jason Kottke.)

Hat tip: MachoTaco24, via Reddit