June and July

It is hard to believe summer went by this fast. Kate started and finished her first summer camp at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. I took two memorable trips (Cape Cod and Montr`eal). Our sunflowers took off in full bloom and added a nice cottage curb appeal to our house. We bought an inflatable pool that is embarrassingly large for the front yard but it is a cheaper and probably better substitute for trips to the city pool.

As most of our friends went and already returned from their main summer vacation, we are only getting ready for ours. Our family usually spends a month in Montana where Chris’ parents and siblings live. We are leaving this Sunday and will be gone for three weeks. The rising heat and humidity in Cincinnati only add to our anticipation for the trip.

Progress report:

Research: I finished all the data analysis for the empirical project and wrote up a draft! My main results are:

Children from less-educated households who are cared for at a center (relative to having only parental care) have higher reading and math scores when they reach kindergarten.

Child care type (parental care, center care, or relative care at age 2) does not have a significant effect on cognitive skills for children from more-educated households.

Once approved by the Institute of Education Sciences Data Security, I will be able to circulate the paper and polish it for publication.

Studies on child care choices are interesting and important on their own and with young children at home, I have additional incentives to read the literature. With rich data on individual households and children, this project is a thrilling adventure that feeds my own curiosity. The best part is pushing the “run” button on many lines of software code and watching trends emerge from initially unorganized information.

French: This is a neglected area for the past month and half. Due to staggered travel schedules, French club was not able to meet. Losing the accountability and interrupted by trip preparations, I only managed to study two lessons with Coffee Break French. My saving grace was the trip to Montréal with Aisela. When the Customs Border Officer in Canada asked me in all seriousness: “What is the purpose of this trip?” In broken French, I declared: “I come here to practice my French.” I don’t know it was my answer or my French that was amusing to him. He tried to contain himself, but couldn’t help letting out a chuckle.

Reading:  I finished 3 books: Poor Economics; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; 斑马. It is a great mix of economics, classic literature, and modern fiction. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo are recipients of Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019 for their work in field experiments to alleviate global poverty. I read their second book “Good Economics for Hard Times” and enjoyed it. So I decided to add their first book “Poor Economics” to my reading list. Both books serve as a literature review of empirical work in development economics. Insightful and eye-opening. Through the statistical findings and behavioral psychology in the book, I sensed the deep humility and patience of a group of researchers who aim to tackle a seemly unsolvable problem.

Nothing beats a good story. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is one. Good writing transports you through time and space, and leaves you with strong emotions as if you are the main character. I felt Tom’s fear, joy, a sense of freedom, short-lived guilt, and desire to do the right thing. His passion for adventures and thrills? Not me.

斑马 is a story of a Chinese woman’s journey to fight infertility, and rekindle the relationship with her husband along the way. I find the author’s message rather trite and the plots far-fetched. However, it is nice to read a light story in Chinese and I have a couple of classic books in 武侠and SciFi lined up to read next.