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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

It seems like Dr. Gelman is refusing to engage the economic analysis. (For a reason that is somehow not easily communicated to Robin.) In terms of economics, I think the burden of proof is on Andrew. Consider that:

1) There can be an order of magnitude difference between state school and private school tuition. Surely the quality of undergrad instruction does not vary by that much. It is possible that parents/students are paying up for incrementally better instruction, but paying for future relationships, earnings power & status seems more likely, to anyone I would think.

2) Dr. Gelman's book on multilevel models is available through Amazon for $31. I'm sure it is clear and well-written. It's even possible that Andrew would answer questions from readers via email. So in what sense exactly are graduate students paying thousands of dollars a year to "learn the material"?

Robin's "simpler methods" question goes in the direction of a cheap shot though as complexity isn't necessarily overfitting.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I don't know about campus security in the United States, but around here you can just sneak into any lecture in a university. For free.

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