[ RadSafe ] Critique of the paper by Almond, Edlund and Palme

[Steven Dapra]

Oct. 22

         This link (below) is not to a booklet, it is to a very short 
abstract of the Almond,Edlund,and Palme paper, which was published by the 
National Bureau of Economic Research.

         At the top of the abstract page are links to the authors.  Douglas 
Almond is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics & School of 
International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (New York).  The 
NBER site lists ten of his completed papers or working papers.  The only 
one about exposure to radioactivity is this one on Swedish exposure to 
Chernobyl fallout.

         Lena Edlund is an associate professor of economics, also at 
Columbia.  According to Columbia's web site, her areas of research are 
marriage, the family, and things that come under the general heading of 
s-e-x.  One of two or three exceptions (other than the co-authored 
Chernobyl paper) is a paper on the long-term effects of a famine in 
Communist China between 1959 and 1961.  According to her Columbia C.V., her 
husband is Douglas Almond.  (Does that name sound familiar?)  She teaches 
in the disciplines of labor, and in gender and economics.  Her B. A. and 
Ph. D. are from the Stockholm School of Economics.  (She is Swedish by 
nationality.)

         Martin Palme has also co-authored a paper on Social Security in 
Sweden.  The NBER web site said nothing about Palme's background.

         This is copied from the NBER's web site:

"Founded in 1920, the National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, 
nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a 
greater understanding of how the economy works. The NBER is committed to 
undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public 
policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.

"Over the years the Bureau's research agenda has encompassed a wide variety 
of issues that confront our society. The Bureau's early research focused on 
the aggregate economy, examining in detail the business cycle and long-term 
economic growth. Simon Kuznets' pioneering work on national income 
accounting, Wesley Mitchell's influential study of the business cycle, and 
Milton Friedman's research on the demand for money and the determinants of 
consumer spending were among the early studies done at the NBER."

         This appears to be a organization that is almost exclusively 
concerned with economics.  I would guess that its work on epidemiology 
should probably not be taken seriously, especially when two of the three 
authors are economists.

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com



At 10:12 AM 10/22/07 +0000, parthasarathy k s wrote:
>Dear list members,
>
>I recall that we had some discussion on a paper by  Almond, Edlund and 
>Palme on prenatal exposure to radiocative fallout and school outcomes in 
>Sweden. I shall appreciate receiving a scientific critique on the report. 
>Was there any authentic analysis by any agency?
>
>A complete booklet is vailable at
>
>http://www.nber.org/papers/w13347
>
>Regards
>K.S.parthasarathy