Moving to R

I have finished my third week of introductory classes on R using RStudio and I must say I'm a converted. I know R can be disproportionately complicated to do a few simple things (such as pie charts or box plot) and I noticed how it can be discouraging because of that. However, it can also turn complicated ideas into just a few simple code lines (a good example). It's extreamily flexible. So I've decided I'm gradually moving to R. I know it will take some time, but it will eventually be completed.

As a consequence, from now on we'll have more R-related posts convering useful tips for urban and demographic studies.


note. I was first introduced to SPSS during my Sociology undergrad. And even though I have had SAS classes and a little contact with STATA, I got stuck with SPSS. I know I shouldn't be saying this out loud. But I'm ready to move on now.


Related Links:

• Resources for Getting Started with R
• R for SAS and SPSS Users (oops!)
• R-oriented Google's search engine
• Plotting in R and the accompanying R source code

Disabled Population in Mexico City

The spatial distribution of disabled population in Mexico City.

[click on the image to enlarge it]

Related Link:

• Race and ethnicity mapped

Miniature Melbourne

Why do I like tilt-shift time-lapse videos so much? I think it's because these kinds of shots give us a sensation that we could get the big picture of how things work  when of course we can't 

Latin American Human Mortality Database

Some of you have probably heard about the Human Mortality Database. Now, Prof. B. Piedad Urdinola (National University of Colombia) and Prof. Bernardo Lanza Queiroz (Cedeplar/UFMG, Brazil) have recently started a new project with a similar idea but covering Latin American countries. It's the Latin American Human Mortality Database.

It brings tons of information and it's really well organized with easy navigation.

"At present the database contains detailed information on mortality for five countries in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. All information is broken down by age, sex, region and cause of death. Additionally there is information on the academic literature on the study of mortality for these same countries."

Long live the project!

Urban Picture

Brooklyn Bridge (1914)

[Image Credit: Eugene de Salignac via Daily Mail]

Assorted Links

1. Sim Paulo - Sao Paulo's transport system modelled in SimCity (by Mike Rose via Drunkeynesian)
   
   
2. Sociology/Demography Vacancies at Cambridge University
   
   
3. Brazil’s bottlenecks (via Matheus Stivali)
   
   
4. Brazilian universities should be considering something similar to this
   
   
5. 10 strange houses (via C. Blattman)
   
   
6. Using unusual surnames and other tricks to gauge intergenerational mobility
   
   
7. Income inequality, as seen from space
   
   
8. Urbanization and Migration Externalities in China (via UrbaChina)
   
   
9. What will your last 10 years look like? (better with no sound)

An experimental confirmation of the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis

Self-recommending: Getting to Work: Experimental Evidence on Job Search and Transportation Costs, by David Phillips.

Abstract:

In urban areas job vacancies often exist but poor, minority residents tend to be concentrated in neighborhoods with limited geographic access to these jobs. Using a randomized field experiment with public transit subsidies, I test whether this spatial mismatch of workers from jobs causes poor labor market outcomes. Randomly selected clients of a non-profit employment agency received a public transit subsidy to assist in applying to jobs and attending interviews with potential employers. I find evidence that the transit subsidies have a large, short-run effect in reducing unemployment durations with treatment causing the probability of finding employment within 40 days to increase by 9 percentage points, from 0.26 to 0.35. After 90 days, this difference narrows to a large but statistically insignificant 5 percentage points. I find weaker evidence that this decrease in unemployment duration results from more intense search behavior, with the transit subsidy group applying to more jobs and jobs further from home. To my knowledge, these results provide the first experimental confirmation that spatial mismatch of workers from jobs can cause adverse labor market outcomes for poor, urban individuals.

This study was presented last year at a conference on 'Research on Urban Mass Housing' that took place at Oxford. Nice programme, by the way.

Chart of the Day

obs.1 It's hard to believe Rio de Janeiro would be more polluted than Sao Paulo. I would love to hear a specialist analyze this.

obs2. You may explorer the data here, or navigate a map by clicking here.

The most polluted cities of the world's largest economies

[Image Credit: The Economist]

12 years in the American housing market

A few months ago, Kevin Quealy has published in the NYT this interactive chart showing the ups and downs in the American housing market over the last 12 years.

Related Links: 

• Squaring house prices
• Jiang Jun Examines Housing in China
• Housing Trends, Short and Long Term
• Mapping the US housing bubble: 2000-2010
• Which country has seen the highest decadal housing price increase?

Message of the Day

(via Luciana Golcman)