The Incidental Economist

Deep down, I’m a quant. I only became a wonk later in life. At work, when I’m not writing blog posts, journal articles, or grant proposals I’m running quantitative analysis of data pertaining to health care insurance markets, among other things.

So I really appreciate Nate Silver when he does stuff like this. His quantitative analysis of politically and policy relevant topics reflects a stunning creativity with data. If anybody exploits more data in more ways than he does I’d like to know about it. More astonishing is the speed and methodological rigor with which he does his work. It’s terrific stuff, for which he’s earned a solid reputation.

For all this I declare Nate Silver The Wonkiest Quant. It takes a special love of analysis and empirically-driven knowledge to read his stuff. But if you’re so inclined, be sure to pay attention. He and his colleagues at FiveThirtyEight.com are worthy of it.