BACK FROM THE CONFERENCE. The Western Economic Association conference in San Diego provided opportunities to meet with colleagues as well as sufficient down time to do some exploring. I chatted briefly with St. Cloud's King Banaian and Mankato's Phil Miller, who brought along sufficient tools to post his slideshow from the conference. There was a rather active mini-conference in sports economics where a number of economist webloggers put in appearances.

One never ceases to learn new things. Several researchers were working on the effect of preschool and K-12 in developing non-cognitive skills that boosted labor force participation and lifetime earnings. I suppose "non-cognitive skills" sounds a bit less judgemental than "habits of highly effective people" let alone "the Protestant ethic" but there appears to be some overlap. A few other sessions provided material for further reflection, of which more anon, along with my slideshows.