Emily Oster looks at a paper claiming that the pandemic has lowered infant IQ. these results are worrisome. However — and I cannot stress this enough — they are completely implausible. There is absolutely no way that there was a reduction in IQ of 82 points as a result of being born during the pandemic. In fact, there is also no way there was a reduction of 27 IQ points. Even 15 seems impossible. IQ is just not malleable in this way. Extremely low birth weight is among the most significant reducers of IQ, and even that is a fraction of the size of these effects.
Dan Senor was on my April FITS team. Unlucky for me, he took most of the month off, so he did not make much of an impact. But I highly recommend his recent podcast discussing Afghanistan with Fred Kagan
Dan Senor was on my April FITS team. Unlucky for me, he took most of the month off, so he did not make much of an impact. But I highly recommend his recent podcast discussing Afghanistan with Fred Kagan
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS81Z3pNbE9HMQ/episode/Zjc2NjM2YzYtNTc3OC00NmRkLWEwNGYtMTRhYzVlZjQ0NmI4?ep=14