[jim leach]

Yes, please check it out and seriously, tell others. You might want to check out Levitt's book, too, just to get a sense of how he'll probably use the data.

It probably won't be a book that he'll publish. Economics doesn't reward book writing very much (his recent book is really his old articles rewritten for a popular audience; nothing original in it, from the point of science, though it's a great read). He's very prolific and publishes mostly articles in top journals. The thing that he appears to be doing with this data is, in part, finding out what constitutes a good player. That is, I think looking at actual person characteristics. Does it vary with a person's education? With their training in certain things like mathematics or statistics? Does it vary with race, age or sex? Does it depend on the time of day they're playing? He's mainly known for his creative questions, and then also, finding the right data (and lastly, coming up with the right econometric techniques to overcome problems inherent in the question he's asking), so I think he's planning something very cool.

I'm kind of a fanboy when it comes to the guy, but it's not difficult to be when you're in grad school and your research area overlaps with his.