What's a Menstrual Cup?

Now here's a peer effect paper you don't see everyday. From Emily Oster and Rebecca Thornton, and the paper is entitled, "Determinants of Technology Adoption: Private Value and Peer Effects in Menstrual Cup Take-Up". The abstract reads:

We estimate the determinants of technology adoption using data from a randomized evaluation of menstrual cups in Nepal, focusing on the role of technology value and peer eects in driving adoption. A menstrual cup is a small, silicone, bell-shaped device which is used internally during menstruation. The individual randomization of cup allows us to estimate causal eects of peer exposure on adoption; differences in the need for mobility and inconvenience of the alternative menstrual protection allow us to estimate effects of cup value. We find both peer exposure and cup value matter for adoption. Further, because our data includes measures of cup trial and cup usage we are able to identify mechanisms through which these eects operate, differentiating between desire to use (trial) and ability to use (usage conditional on trial). We find evidence that peer exposure matters both because people want to act like their friends, and because they learn how to use the cup from their friends. Higher cup benefits increase individual desire to use the cup, but do not aect ability to use it. Policy simulations suggest that targeting distribution based on either cup value or social networks yields higher usage than random distribution, but which type of targeting is better depends on whether early adoption or longer-term adoption is targeted.

This is great, in all seriousness. The peer effect and randomized experiment methodology is turning out to be a really fruitful avenue for understanding the importance of social networks in determining labor and health outcomes.

Casillero del Diablo, Carmenere 2007

I read in Wine Spectator that the Concha y Toro Shiraz (not sure the vintage) was an 87 or an 88, and priced really low, like around $10. But when I was at the grocery store, I couldn't remember the grape, and saw too many from that vineyard. I remembered it was red, and that narrowed it down, so I went with the Carmenere 2007. It's a Chilean wine, but I'd never heard or had the Carmenere grape before. Here's a review. My first impressions are that it's awful. Not awful the way really bad wine is awful. More like something is wrong with this wine. Like I'm drinking water in which a mechanic was soaking tools and other metal objects. The smell is overpowering. No trace of fruit at all in the taste as far as I can tell (despite what that reviewer said, I neither smelled nor tasted anything remotely vegetative too). The smell, instead had the same kind of deep mineral smell to it. I decided to cap it and give it another try tomorrow. I'll update then with what I think on second impressions.

Update: Redemption! Definitely better the second day. If you get this, and I think it's pretty much everywhere, I'd recommend letting it decanter for a few hours.