About me

Name: Simon Hedlin

Age: 24

Geography: Born on Taiwan, grew up in Sweden, studied in the United Kingdom, and am longing for the United States.

Does for a living: Work full-time with politics, and full-time student in Statistics and Mathematics at Stockholm university and Lund university. Have previously studied a Bachelor of Science in Economics (major) and Political Science (minor) at the University of Birmingham, and some Economic History at Lund university. Will pursue graduate studies at Columbia University in New York in the fall of 2012.

Some of my interests: Academic journals, movie soundtracks, penguins, foreign affairs, the mathematical decimal pi, photography, Lost Generation literature, creative writing, current affairs.

Some of my academic interests: Applied econometrics, experimental economics, economic inequality, statistical measures of economic development, agglomeration, political institutions, financial sector regulation, and in general topics related to international development.

Professional memberships, volunteer work or organizations that I support economically: ARKive – Images of Life on Earth, American Economic Assocation (AEA), British Mensa, Conservatives, Conservative Future, CouchSurfing, Econometric Society, End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), Folkpartiet liberalerna, Fria Moderata Studentförbundet (FMSF), Global Fund for Women, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Kiva.org, Liberala ungdomsförbundet (LUF), Mensa International, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Course Ware (MIT OCW), READ International, Royal Statistical Society (RSS), Röda Korset, Röda Korsets Ungdomsförbund, The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Utrikespolitiska institutet (UI), World Land Trust.

Some of my subscriptions: Axess, Applied Economics, American Economic Review, Business Strategy Review, Econometrica, Economic Policy, European Voice, Financial Times, Fokus, Foreign Affairs, Intelligent Life, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Libération, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Neo, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Svensk Linje, The Economist, The Times, Tidningen NU, Tvärdrag.

Brief presentation: I am interested in a lot of things so rather than having a specific focus, this blog comprises of a potpourri of my personal reflections – most of them, however, approached quantitatively. I have an academic background and – at least for the next few years – an academic future, so there might be a slight bias towards regression analyses and scatter plots. No, this is not a very cool blog. Anyway, I hope to occasionally raise interesting perspectives by challenging conventional wisdom. My aim is always to be factual rather than personal. And on a final note, I enjoy good debate, so please share all your wise thoughts.

Simon Hedlin Larsson