OLD DOG LEARNS NEW TRICKS. There will be only a few postings this evening as I was busy all day with the Illinois Economic Association conference in Chicago. (It adjourned a bit late for me to catch the Elburn 400, but the last Commuter 400 semi-fast of the evening offered some nap time. More conference tomorrow.)

One paper attempted to identify patterns in departmental location. About half the economics departments in U.S. universities are in the college of business, with the other half in liberal arts. Departments are more likely to be in liberal arts in coastal universities, and their affiliation with liberal arts varies directly with a higher research classification for the university, and with the university's selectivity. (Economics is the discipline most likely to have more than one home: psychology and management combined, or sociology and human resources, are nonexistent.)

Another paper describes a service called EH.Net, with all manner of stuff on economic history, including a series of calculators to convert, say, $4000 in 1873 money or $5 in 1905 money into the 2006 equivalent.