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Economic Education
A Category Archive (249 entries)
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May 18, 2013
Cost-benefit Analysis
David Henderson
In the cost/benefit analysis course i teach, one of the actual cost/benefit analyses we work our way through--and one that I present as a reasonably good CBA--is a study done by two St. Louis Federal Reserve economists on adding another... MORE
May 16, 2013
Economic Education
David Henderson
The best talk I attended at the annual meetings of the Association for Private Enterprise Education (APEE) was a luncheon speech given by Kenneth Elzinga of the University of Virginia. I have known Ken since the early 2000s when we... MORE
April 15, 2013
Economic Education
David Henderson
When I teach my Energy Economics course, in the first problem set, one of the problems is the following: Name an energy activity that the government is currently engaged in that you think should be eliminated and give your reasons... MORE
April 1, 2013
Economic Education
David Henderson
I'm pleased to announce that EconLog has a new guest blogger. He is Art Carden. Art is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Samford University's Brock School of Business in Birmingham, Alabama, a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for... MORE
Public Choice Theory
David Henderson
Externalities, public goods, asymmetric information, and market power provide necessary--but insufficient--conditions for intervention to be justified. They certainly are not talismans that provide interventionists with carte blanche to tinker with the members of a society as if they were pieces... MORE
March 23, 2013
Economic Education
David Henderson
In a few minutes I'm flying down to Los Angeles to attend a memorial service for the late Armen Alchian. Most of the short appreciation I wrote out covers issues I've already talked about in the bio linked above and... MORE
February 24, 2013
Economic Education
David Henderson
I've written between 45 and 50 op/eds in the Wall Street Journal but never before have I had the intense response--all positive, by the way--that I've had to my Wednesday piece on the late Armen Alchian. I heard from Alchian's... MORE
February 21, 2013
Economic Education
David Henderson
In my Wall Street Journal piece, I quoted Friedrich Hayek saying to me, in 1975: There are two economists who deserve the Nobel prize because their work is important but won't get it because they didn't do a lot of... MORE
February 20, 2013
Economic Education
David Henderson
The Wall Street Journal published my piece this morning on the late Armen Alchian and some of his important contributions to economics. Some excerpts follow. The intro: In 1975, I attended a week-long conference in Connecticut at which the star... MORE
February 15, 2013
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'm speaking at Students for Liberty's 2013 conference tomorrow and Sunday. My topics: public choice, voter irrationality, and The Case Against Education. I'll also be debating the Center for Immigration Studies' Jan Ting on (a) immigration, and (b) military intervention. ... MORE
January 30, 2013
Cost-benefit Analysis
David Henderson
Although the week is half over, I bet this one will beat all comers. David Friedman, after analyzing queues and time lost to government bureaucracy in Britain while he was traveling, had an anonymous commenter who said: No offence, but... MORE
Economic Education
David Henderson
File this under "Gains from Exchange" Police officers in Seattle, Washington held their first gun buyback program in 20 years this weekend, underneath interstate 5, and soon found that private gun collectors were working the large crowd as little makeshift... MORE
January 20, 2013
Economic Education
Garett Jones
@EliDourado tweets:Kind of hard to believe, Mercatus will pay you $20k/year to get an MA in Economics. Plus you might "get" to be my RA. He's right. You might also "get" to take master's level macroeconomics with me: I'm teaching it... MORE
December 26, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
In the last week of October, Sallie James of Cato and I taped a segment with John Stossel. The whole show is up on line and the segment we are on starts at about the 29:45 point and goes to... MORE
December 20, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
Last week, I received an e-mail from the son of a friend of mine. The son is a student at a school in the Northeast. Here's the relevant part of the e-mail: I took a globalization class this past semester... MORE
October 23, 2012
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Earlier this month, Vipul Naik asked me to ask you about the persuasiveness of my case for open borders. Today Vipul posted an extended analysis of your responses. Very thoughtful, very careful, very fair. Read the whole thing.... MORE
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Another fascinating aside from Larry White's The Clash of Economic Ideas (Kindle price just $23.40):Georgist theory was even the inspiration for the board game Monopoly. The game's original creator called it "The Landlord Game" and intended it to illustrate the... MORE
September 21, 2012
Economic History
David Henderson
I haven't received a review copy of Michael Goodwin's Economix yet, but I'm not hopeful that it will be good. The first thing I noticed is that in the praise for Economix, only one of the five "praisers" he highlighted... MORE
September 10, 2012
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
If you could persuade one more person to blog, who would it be? My answer, hands down, is GMU economist and Twitter hero Garett Jones. I'm positively delighted, then, to welcome Dr. Jones to EconLog as a guest blogger. He's... MORE
September 9, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
The great libertarian scholar Ronald Hamowy died yesterday. I only met him once, but I read most of his work while I was an undergrad. Though he had a long and productive career, I'm fondest of his early writings for... MORE
September 5, 2012
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Big news: My beloved friends and esteemed colleagues Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok are launching their own online education project, MRUniversity. Since I don't think online education is going to revolutionize education (here, here, and here for starters), my knee-jerk... MORE
August 27, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
Last month I received this e-mail from a student I taught in the Spring quarter at the Naval Postgraduate School: Today my [deleted so as not to identify the instructor] instructor pointed out that there was a transfer of wealth... MORE
August 22, 2012
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I want to persuade Matt Yglesias to give Frederic Bastiat the respect he deserves. On some level, though, Matt already reveals remarkable respect for my favorite 19th-century French economist. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and Matt has... MORE
August 20, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
I'm delighted to get Matt Yglesias talking about Bastiat, but I'm afraid he's missing my point. For Matt, Bastiat's writings are "non-responsive to modern issues." Matt's example:The candlemakers' petition is a devastating satire of pharmaceutical companies' endless lust for patent... MORE
August 15, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Thanks to everyone who responded to my query about Bastiat's "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen." For me, his essay is the pinnacle of economic profundity. You can call it obvious. But when I first started learning economics... MORE
August 13, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Free-market economists almost always love Frederic Bastiat's classic essay, "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen." But the central theme of the essay - opportunity cost - is hardly ideological. It seems like all economists, regardless of ideology, would... MORE
July 31, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
As co-blogger Bryan and many others have noted, today would have been Milton Friedman's 100th birthday. Over the years, I have posted appreciations of him and so I don't want to redo it. Instead, I'll link to a few and... MORE
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Today would have been Milton Friedman's 100th birthday. I only met the man long enough for him to sign my copy of Capitalism and Freedom, but he's been a tremendous influence on me. All of my other adolescent intellectual heroes... MORE
July 6, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
In an otherwise good article defending Tyler Cowen, Josh Barro states the following: There is declining marginal utility of money: A person who makes $10,000 gets more value out of an extra dollar than a person who makes $100,000 does.... MORE
June 28, 2012
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
On Monday, my colleague Virgil Storr heard my IHS lecture on "The Case Against Education," and sent me some interesting comments. Here's full exchange, with Virgil's kind permission. Quick question: Do we have good ways of figuring out who will... MORE
June 25, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
Attention undergraduates: Here is an opportunity for you to get published. Take a look at today's Doonesbury as it's chock full of bad economics. I would like to have a contest to see which undergraduate can produce the best response... MORE
June 20, 2012
Public Choice Theory
David Henderson
"If this country is worth saving, it's worth saving at a profit." --H.L. Hunt This is a quote from one of the best books of the 1970s, The Machinery of Freedom, by David Friedman. It comes at the end of... MORE
May 30, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
When I first heard about Wikipedia, I thought, "this can't work." My reason: there was no assurance that letting huge numbers of people fill in entries and update things would lead to correct information. That said, it works much better... MORE
May 12, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
Timothy Taylor, managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, has an excellent article in the Spring 2012 issue on his job of editing economists. I'll hit highlights along with comments on how his experience with editing dovetails with mine.... MORE
April 26, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
I was going over consumer surplus in my class on Tuesday and a student gave me a fresh example that he had learned from his economics professor as an undergrad at the U.S. Naval Academy. Here it is. You go... MORE
April 12, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
A few times I've referred to "The Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdom" that I teach at the start of every economics course I give. I've usually linked to someone's restatement of them from my book, The Joy of Freedom: An... MORE
March 21, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
If the Department of Energy is to be believed, weekly gasoline demand has fallen 7% on average from a year ago, to its lowest level since 2001. But few market observers believe it. The Energy Information Administration's weekly report on... MORE
February 9, 2012
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen wrote that it is too elementary for most MR readers but it is well executed and would make a good gift for anyone needing an introduction to economic reasoning. My thoughts: 1. The price is very attractive. I... MORE
February 1, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
Yesterday, the Monterey County Herald, my local paper, ran my letter as the lead letter. I was commenting on this story. Here it is: A 'phony right' Your article Saturday on CSU Monterey Bay students who are unhappy with a... MORE
January 28, 2012
Cost-benefit Analysis
David Henderson
There have been a lot of good comments on Arnold Kling's post on Charles Murray's "bubble" and a few on mine. On Arnold's post, Tom West makes a good point about not taking any particular question of the 20 too... MORE
January 16, 2012
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Bloomberg News has an article on the many MIT economics Ph.D's currently in top policy slots at central banks around the world. The article paints a rosy picture of grad school life during the period when we were there, including:... MORE
January 13, 2012
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Students might be interested in a set of imitation Sal Khan videos that I made to cover AP economics. There are roughly 70 videos, typically 10-15 minutes each. I start with some basic economic concepts, then proceed to macro (starting... MORE
January 12, 2012
Economic Education
David Henderson
Bryan Caplan's post earlier this week, "Eureka! Economic Illiteracy as Mental Substitution," is one of his best ever. And that's a high bar. Bryan applies the insight from Kahneman--that people answer the question they want to answer rather than the... MORE
January 10, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Here's another revelation from Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, from his chapter on "Answering an Easier Question." The lead-in:A remarkable aspect of your mental life is that you are rarely stumped. True, you occasionally face a question such as 17... MORE
December 31, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
In terms of enjoyment, 2011 has been my favorite year of blogging since I started in late October 2008. In late November I hit 1,000 posts and certainly hope to make it to at least 2,000. I went quickly through... MORE
December 17, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
To follow this completely you need to read my previous post, "My 'Occupy Monterey' Talk, Part I." (One thing I forgot to mention in that post is that I pointed out that Congress had voted to give the U.S. military... MORE
November 25, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
In a post on November 20, economics professor Robin Wells weighs in on the students who walked out of Greg Mankiw's class. I had previously blogged about this here. I particularly like the tone of Professor Wells's comments. This surprised... MORE
November 9, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
News Flash: Harvard Has no Access to the Web and No Libraries Last Wednesday, Greg Mankiw blogged about the students who walked out of his Ec10 class. They have various complaints about it that you can read here. One student,... MORE
November 8, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
In a post yesterday, I asked readers to say who they thought is the modern counterpart of Bastiat. I should have specified that I meant someone who's still alive; otherwise, I think libfree's, Michael J. Green's, Will Ruger's, and Daniel... MORE
November 7, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
If you have never read Frederic Bastiat, you're missing a real treat. He was the French economic journalist who wrote a spate of articles in his 40s, before dying in 1850, laying out economics in a very clear way. When... MORE
October 31, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
Teaching kids about taxes and welfare using Hallowe'en candy Comedian Tim Slagle, whom for some reason I had never heard of, has an excellent video out in which he uses Hallowe'en candy to illustrate taxes. A lot packed into 3... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
I've been working on lectures on microeconomics for my AP econ class. I am finished with macro (I hope), although at some point I will put together something on PSST. Anyway, I was cruising along with micro lectures, getting ready... MORE
October 21, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
I still think this is one of the best 3-minute videos on economics.... MORE
October 4, 2011
Macroeconomics
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, Every time you write down an IS-LM model you should hear a clock start ticking in your head. The longer the clock ticks, you more you need to worry about this problem because the more that a)... MORE
September 21, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
I'm one of those people who, on a flight, after doing the crossword puzzle and the medium sudoku, occasionally looks at the articles. I do it mainly to get a feel for what writers trained in the medium think Americans... MORE
September 8, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
That's the title of my piece that I wrote for the McClatchy newspaper chain. It ran in multiple McClatchy papers. Here's the one in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Here's one excerpt: First, distinguish between bad jobs and good jobs. An... MORE
September 1, 2011
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
I posted four new videos on the topic of outsourcing. They are numbers 9-12 in my AP Economics lecture series. Feedback on any of them would be appreciated. With number 12, I sort of dance around the idea of PSST.... MORE
August 28, 2011
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
I took a break from the basic economic concepts to record this video. I am leaning against encouraging my students to watch it. Regular readers of this blog may enjoy it.... MORE
August 26, 2011
Economics of Education
Arnold Kling
Timothy Taylor writes, My solution is my own introductory textbook, "Principles of Economics." The second edition of this text is out this fall through Textbook Media, Inc. The pricing works this way: $17 for access to an online e-textbook which... MORE
August 22, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
In my local paper, the Monterey County Herald, this morning, on the front page above the fold is the following headline: "GOP may approve payroll tax hike." It was a shocking headline and the story, by Charles Babington of the... MORE
August 21, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
Open up any principles of economics textbook written between the 1950s and the early (and maybe even late) 1970s, and the odds are high that it will say that the United States has a mixed economy. One part of the... MORE
August 15, 2011
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
1. From Paul Howard. Government policy both encourages consumer spending in health and education and protects providers in those industries through licensing requirements that reduce competition from lower-cost or higher-quality providers (charter schools, retail clinics, etc.). 2. From John Goodman.... MORE
July 26, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
On his blog, "Conversable Economist," which, I agree with co-blogger Arnold, is excellent, Timothy Taylor gives an example of opportunity cost from Yale economist Shane Frederick: "While shopping for my first stereo, I spent an hour debating between a $1,000... MORE
July 20, 2011
Austrian Economics
Arnold Kling
The Institute for Humane Studies has put together instructional material on basic concepts related to libertarian thinking. One set of videos pertains to economics, and it has a very strong Austrian flavor. I have only watched a few of them.... MORE
May 25, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
I gave a talk at a joint Institute for Humane Studies/Mercatus Center event in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. One of the other speakers was John Papola who, along with Russ Roberts, made the two Keynes/Hayek videos (here... MORE
May 12, 2011
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
1. Today I'm supposed to be on the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC between 4 and 5 PM EST.2. On May 25 at 4 PM, the Cato Institute is holding a book forum on Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. ... MORE
April 29, 2011
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
1. He points to Noah Smith's description of learning Dark Age Macro. I absolutely don't blame Chris House for teaching what he taught. Our curriculum was considered to be the state of the art by everyone who mattered. Without a... MORE
April 15, 2011
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
I teach an AP economics course, that covers both micro and macro. I do not much care for the AP curriculum, so I try to do things differently. Here are some thoughts, below the fold, on material that I plan... MORE
April 14, 2011
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Arnold Kling
I have read hardly any science fiction. However, I have found that it is often easy to explain some of my economic ideas in terms of The Diamond Age or Snow Crash. What other science fiction books do you recommend... MORE
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Suppose that you were going to teach an economic history course to high school students. The goal is to offer a better perspective on economic growth and macroeconomic issues than one gets from the usual ahistorical approach. What eras/episodes would... MORE
March 22, 2011
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Arnold Kling
You can now access the current issue and complete archive of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Many classic papers in applied macro are hence made available. Thanks to Ted Gayer for an email pointer, and thanks to Brookings for undertaking... MORE
February 19, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
That's the title of a talk I gave to Stephen Hicks's philosophy class at Rockford College on Thursday morning and to economics students of Josh Hall and other economics professors at Beloit College on Thursday afternoon. After my talk at... MORE
February 18, 2011
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
My website was very cool back when it launched in 1994. But during the intervening 17 years, fashions have changed. Perhaps there's even been some unmeasured progress. So by popular demand http://www.bcaplan.com (mirror site at http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan) has been completely updated,... MORE
February 16, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
In yesterday's post, I said that the thing that turned me around and made me want to get a Ph.D. in economics after finding my one economics course boring beyond belief was a visit to the University of Winnipeg by... MORE
February 15, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
Co-blogger Bryan's take on GMU professors blogging earlier today is one of my 20 favorites of his posts. I have a few things to add from my own experience. One is a shortened version of my own story of how... MORE
February 9, 2011
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
This list, compiled by a committee that includes Kenneth Arrow and several other superstars, consists of twenty articles. I think one could make a pretty good case that a professional economist ought to be familiar with every article. For example,... MORE
February 5, 2011
Economic Education
David Henderson
I just finished watching, for about the fourth time, the movie Stand and Deliver. It made me think of this talk I gave in 1997 when I won the Naval Postgraduate School's Schieffelin Award for best teacher on campus. It... MORE
January 29, 2011
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'm now on Twitter as bryan_caplan. For the first year or so, I'm going to use it to promote my views on kids and parenting, then see how things evolve. My book on this subject, Selfish Reasons to Have More... MORE
January 6, 2011
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'll be lecturing at the Students for Liberty conference in DC (February 18-20) and the Institute for Humane Studies Liberty and Society seminar in Philadelphia (June 11-17). Hope to see you there.... MORE
January 5, 2011
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Just in time for the annual meetings of the American Economic Association, Russ Roberts writes, modeling economic behavior using the tools of the physical sciences in hopes of attaining the holy grail of a full-blown, accurate, model that can track... MORE
December 30, 2010
Economic Education
David Henderson
Arnold Kling and Bryan Caplan at Econlog are also very good for a libertarian-inclined view of the economic world. This is from Alen Mattich, "The Best Economics Blogs," Wall Street Journal, December 30. He omits my name. Of course, there... MORE
November 24, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
From Ashwin: The relevant insight in Holling's work is that resilience and stability as goals for an ecosystem are frequently at odds with each other. In many ecosystems, "the very fact of low stability seems to produce high resilience". Conversely,... MORE
November 23, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
A press release from the Institute for New Economic Thinking: Led by INET's Executive Director Dr. Robert Johnson, the outreach program has already reached six institutions of higher learning, and has included presentations and discussion from INET Advisory Board members... MORE
October 26, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Among those trying to popularize the Arrow Impossibility Theorem are Steven Landsburg, Tyler Cowen, and Alex Tabarrok. Alex writes, More generally, what Arrow showed is that group choice (aggregation) is not like individual choice... Arrow showed that when a group... MORE
October 25, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen asks which economic ideas are most difficult to popularize. This could mean (a) that there is nowhere to go to read a definitive popular version or (b) that people can read a definitive popular treatment and yet walk... MORE
October 13, 2010
Economic Education
David Henderson
I'm always impressed when someone admits an error, and especially impressed when he admits an error brought to his attention by an undergrad in an introductory economics course. I just happened to read Douglass North's graceful tribute to the late... MORE
September 20, 2010
Last week, I was interviewed for 16 minutes by Mike McConnell on WGN, Chicago. He was a cut above in his understanding of the various economic issues. My test for whether it's working with the host is whether he invites... MORE
September 18, 2010
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
When economists explain supply-and-demand, they often invoke the Walrasian auctioneer. Imagine we all gather together at a massive auction house, with all eyes on the auctioneer in the front. He calls out prices, and the attendees call out quantities. When... MORE
September 17, 2010
Economic Methods
Arnold Kling
A commenter points to a post from Pete Boettke a couple months ago, where he quotes testimony from David Colander. One would think that competition in ideas would lead to the stronger ideas winning out. Unfortunately, because the macroeconomy is... MORE
September 16, 2010
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
In response to my defense of austerity over "constructive" free-market reforms, Adam Ozimek blogs:I find plausible his speculation that privatizing social security could lead to policies intended to prop up the stock market, like TARP x 100. However, I have... MORE
September 14, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Warsh writes, Sometimes Cowen, 48, seems to have nothing but outside interests, as his readers know from Marginal Revolution Noting that Cowen directs the Mercatus Center, recently mentioned in the context of Jane Mayer's conspiratorial portrayal of the Koch brothers,... MORE
September 8, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Ed Pinto writes, Here's my proposal to bring Congress's penchant for imprudent lending to a quick end: All congressional pension assets should be invested in funds backed solely by the high- risk loans mandated by federal housing legislation. I have... MORE
August 4, 2010
Economic Education
David Henderson
In a previous post, I praised Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek for spreading economic wisdom to people in letters to the editor. This is the story Don told me about how he got hooked on economics. I tell this story... MORE
August 1, 2010
Economic Education
David Henderson
Economics in One Letter Almost every morning when I wake up, one thing I can count on in my e-mail inbox is a letter written by Don Boudreaux earlier that morning in which he takes on this or that economic... MORE
July 21, 2010
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
GMU's former chairman and economic educator extraordinaire Don Boudreaux:And It said "Let there be higher wages. And there was."[...]So why are so many people enthusiastic about statutes such as this one [the living wage]?Proponents of such legislation are economic creationists.... MORE
June 30, 2010
Economic Philosophy
David Henderson
"Worker Bee" Stings the Blogosphere The title I've chosen for this post could have been the title of a short recent piece by self-described "worker bee" economist Kartik Athreya. (The article, titled "Economics is Hard. Don't Let Bloggers Tell You... MORE
June 29, 2010
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Although I've argued that basic economics is intuitive, I recommend this short Wikipedia article on the counterintuitive. Its best example:[A] policy of catching large fish and throwing back small ones may be counter-productive. In response to that policy, evolutionary pressure... MORE
June 15, 2010
Economic Education
David Henderson
The first day of every econ class I teach, I start with my "Ten Pillars of Economics." Pillar #7 is, "The value of a good or service is subjective." Last night, I went to dinner with two of my star... MORE
June 13, 2010
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
[update: Daniel Klein emails me to credit Zeljka Buturovic for the study.] Dave Leigh writes, People who frequently shop at Wal-Mart scored much better than those who never do (2.24 to 4.24 questions wrong, respectively). This isn't much of a... MORE
May 7, 2010
Economic Methods
Arnold Kling
Bruce Charlton no longer edits one. While he was editor, he published Robin Hanson's classic article on what we now call Hansonian medicine. Daniel Klein still edits one, and the latest issue features an article challenging Bryan Caplan's view that... MORE
April 27, 2010
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Mankiw's just blogged two new economically enlightening cartoons, here and here. Is Yoram Bauman's Cartoon Introduction to Economics blazing a trail? If so, I want in! Maybe I should adapt Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids as a graphic novel. ... MORE
March 31, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
He writes, One of the classic hypothetical questions economists ask when referring to healthcare costs is, "Would you rather go back to 1950s medical care and 1950s prices?" If that option were offered at your place of work, my guess... MORE
March 15, 2010
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'll be attending the Kauffman Economics Bloggers Forum in Kansas City on Friday. You can watch the whole conference here. I'm not on any of the panels, but I expect I'll be raising my hand quite a bit. :-)... MORE
January 25, 2010
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Keynes vs. Hayek, a rap video developed by John Papola and Russ Roberts. It might be a great discussion starter for an economics class.... MORE
December 20, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
The quote was from DeLong's rave review of The Accidental Theorist. The next sentence reads:But all these are outweighed by one fact: he is almost always--not always, but almost always--right.Even in 1999, that was a stretch. By 2009, what non-Democratic... MORE
December 19, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
"Critics of Paul Krugman call him acerbic and boastful, unfair on the attack and unwilling to make concessions on the defense, certain that he is correct, and always sure that those who disagree are mendacious or foolish (or both). And... MORE
December 16, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
The Association of Private Enterprise Education writes, The 2010 Policy Communicators Contest invites college professors and graduate students from all disciplines to submit essays on the relationship between public policy and economic growth. It is of particular interest to compare... MORE
December 13, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
1. He was influential. He influenced students through his textbook, and he influenced the entire economics profession through his dissertation, published as "Foundations of Economic Analysis." Readers of this blog will tend to disapprove of his influence, in that it... MORE
November 24, 2009
Business Economics
Arnold Kling
In my high school economics class, my students asked me to explain why there are sales on "Black Friday." The class period was over, so I only had time to blurt out "price discrimination" without getting into an explanation of... MORE
November 19, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
In response to Bryan's post, readers posed some interesting questions to ask in a survey of members of the American Economic Association. Is there any reason besides a desire to learn, or to make entry into a Ph.D. programme easier... MORE
October 6, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
As events have unfolded during the past year and a half, a growing number of people have asked me what I think of the economy. I've learned two things from these encounters. First, questioners seem to want sound-bite answers. Incisive... MORE
September 30, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Recently, Bryan posed a challenge and a follow-up to state a basic economic claim that is difficult to explain simply and intuitively. Of all of Greg Mankiw's Ten Principles of Economics, the one that I think is hardest to explain... MORE
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
In a recent post, I posed a challenge:State any proposition in basic economics in the comments, and I'll make it intuitive in a follow-up post.Now I'm back to keep my promise. Fortunately for me, many of the 55 comments don't... MORE
September 29, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
I started my Executive MBA economics class today that I teach in front of a camera to 3 remote locations: D.C., Norfolk, and Oceana. I've taught since 1975 with 4 years off to work at Cato or in the Reagan... MORE
September 28, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Economists often off-handedly remark that basic economics is "counterintuitive." In one of the papers he presented at GMU, Scott Sumner has a whole appendix on "Why is economics so counterintuitive?" Even my hands aren't clean here: In The Myth of... MORE
September 19, 2009
That's a question asked by Louis J. Prues and answered by the Wall Street Journal's Kelly Greene in the weekend Journal. Ms. Greene summarizes the findings of an analysis by Tony Webb, a research economist with the Boston Center for... MORE
September 6, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Today Tyler shares his erudition on another great Simon, Simon Newcomb. I primarily know Newcomb from his 1893 piece in the QJE, "The Problem of Economic Education." It's one of the great dissections of economic misconceptions. If you've always wanted... MORE
August 26, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
From Bryan's talk in Sweden. With rational voters, policy-makers have to do whatever the public wants; they can't "make a difference." With irrational voters, in contrast, policy-makers may be able to give the public the policies that it needs, rather... MORE
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
My colleagues Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok have published a new economics principles textbook. It's amazing, then, that Alex is still giving away fantastic economic education for free. Check out his latest post, and get edified:Imagine that a single employer... MORE
Economic Education
David Henderson
There is more than one way to make economics fun, and I hope that future research will compare and contrast the effectiveness of different approaches. Personally, however, I embrace blunt delivery of economic principles, shocking examples, and ridicule of popular... MORE
August 17, 2009
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Richard Posner writes, The efficient markets theory, when understood not as teaching merely that markets are hard to beat even for experts and therefore passive management of a diversified portfolio of assets is likely to outperform a strategy of picking... MORE
July 28, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
New York Times interviewer: You're giving a free evening concert in New York this Thursday, July 30, at Battery Park. Arlo Guthrie: Free to the public. It doesn't mean I'm doing it for free. In almost every economics course I... MORE
July 17, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
Econlog is in the top 25 economics blogs, as chosen by the Wall Street Journal. I've waited for my co-bloggers to crow about this, since I'm the newcomer (I started in October 2008), but because they haven't, I will. Of... MORE
July 5, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
is profiled by David Warsh.... MORE
June 29, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
reviews of economic research. Pointer from David Warsh... MORE
May 19, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
On this blog last month, my fellow blogger Arnold Kling wrote: Then consider the Internet. For an autodidact, this is a golden age. For going to graduate school, not so much. I agree with Arnold totally on the first. When... MORE
May 8, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
On tonight's 20/20 on ABC, John Stossel will, yet again, throw himself into controversial issues. I think he's the most economically literate news person on any of the networks. On The O'Reilly Factor earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly interviewed Stossel... MORE
April 19, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
I got 18 out of 18, which is comforting, since I may be teaching AP econ next year. I don't much care for the AP econ curriculum, but I figure 2009-2010 I ought to be able to make something interesting... MORE
April 15, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
My choice: David Friedman's class on "Legal Systems Very Different From Ours." Other suggestions? ... MORE
April 11, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
According to data posted by Greg Mankiw, it may be because I went to Swarthmore College, the undergraduate institution that produced the highest number of economics Ph.D's per capita. Clicking through to the study by John J. Siegfried and Wendy... MORE
March 26, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Kelly Markson writes, In several principles-of-economics textbooks, the first chapter is devoted to the basic elements of economics such as scarcity, tradeoffs, opportunity costs, incentives, marginal thinking, etc. Most instructors spend very little time with this chapter. I spend weeks... MORE
Economic Education
David Henderson
Ms. Bachmann as Air Traffic Controller in a YouTube World When the only way people could watch Congress was via C-SPAN, Congressmen confronting those testifying before their committees rationally, if often boringly, made speeches. Their calculus was surely that someone... MORE
March 11, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
The next John Stossel ("Bailouts, Big Spending, and Bull," Friday at 10 on 20/20) is going to be a tour de force. Not only will you get to see me with big hair and big beard, you'll also learn about... MORE
March 5, 2009
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
is on line. My inclination would be to read the transcripts, but if you prefer you may either listen or watch.... MORE
February 25, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Robin Hanson and I have agreed to debate each other before the GMU Econ Society after spring break. But we can't decide what to debate about. Robin accordingly suggested that we ask our blog readers for requests. It needs to... MORE
February 11, 2009
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
A poll says that two-thirds of the American people think they could do a better job on the economy than Congress. Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do... MORE
February 2, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
The feature article on Econlib this month is by economically literate political scientist Michael Munger. In it, he defends the role of the middleman, drawing on two classic articles, one by Bastiat and one by R.A. Radford. My favorite paragraph:... MORE
January 21, 2009
Economic Education
David Henderson
My review of Russ Roberts' excellent economics novel, The Price of Everything is in the latest issue of Regulation. Roberts is definitely growing as a novelist. I like it better than The Invisible Heart, which I liked better than his... MORE
January 9, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Here's a long list of links on humorous econ pieces, including Leijonhufvud's classic "Life Among the Econ."P.S. Correction: I misremembered my conversation with my colleague John Nye. "Japan's Phillips Curve Looks Like Japan" was the annual favorite of a panel... MORE
January 8, 2009
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
In Singapore, the government almost never hands out goodies free of charge. There's almost always a co-payment, even for health care and education. Western economists justify these charges as a partial remedy for "moral hazard." But perhaps Singapore has been... MORE
November 3, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, The consulting incomes of finance economists will fall and fewer talented people will go into finance. Speaking fees will fall since fewer economists will give talks at hedge funds. The relative status of macroeconomists will rise and... MORE
October 24, 2008
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I first encountered the mind of David Henderson when I was 18 years old, and read his introduction to a Cato reprint of Yale Brozen's "Is Government the Source of Monopoly." I liked Brozen's essay, but it was Henderson's intro... MORE
October 22, 2008
Austrian Economics
Arnold Kling
In response to my post on the porn that is modern macro, readers naturally asked me for alternatives.... MORE
October 13, 2008
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Gordon Tullock is always my first choice for the Nobel prize, but Paul Krugman's win is, as the Germans say, nicht ein Unrecht - not an injustice. Yes, he's often screamed himself silly, but the best fifth of Krugman's corpus... MORE
September 27, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
What macroeconomic theory says that we run the risk of a Depression if we don't have a bailout? Try to come up with an argument that is either already in a textbook or that you would put in a textbook.... MORE
September 4, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Mama, don't let your boy grow up to be a campaign economic adviser. Look at what happened to Jason Furman and Doug Holtz-Eakin, two very nice, very smart guys. Because they are on different sides of the Presidential campaign, they... MORE
August 21, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Tom Green writes, But after three decades of questioning whether the world can continue to support our consumption habits, Rees has had trouble convincing his colleagues in economics that their economic model needs an overhaul. Maybe after three decades of... MORE
July 31, 2008
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Here's Tyler's latest Dadaism:A good blog should be subversive and help you see the faults in the author's own positions. Ask whether the blogs you are reading in fact provide that service. Self-subversion ought also, in the long run, to... MORE
July 25, 2008
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'm increasingly convinced that the way economists teach undergrads about public goods and externalities is needlessly confusing. Here's my radical solution: Purge discussions of public goods and bads, and replace them with discussions of positive and negative externalities. Is this... MORE
July 2, 2008
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'll be in Chicago next week giving lectures for the Institute for Humane Studies' The Tradition of Liberty: Advanced Studies seminar. My lectures: 1. Public choice and public goods. The basics of public goods theory, plus a long discussion about... MORE
June 26, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
The question of whether businesses should be public-spirited is a great one for class discussion. Teachers and professors will want to bookmark Creative Capitalism. Thanks to Tyler Cowen for the pointer. Here is Michael Kinsley's introduction: why not just pay... MORE
June 18, 2008
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Arnold Kling
Eamonn Butler's The Best Book on the Market: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Free Economy gets right down to business, without any introduction explaining who is the target audience and what they should get out of it. Maybe... MORE
June 15, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Ruth Lieber says, It's hard to imagine the invisible hand. After all, it's invisible. Leaving things alone, leaving people to their own desires and dreams would seem like the last way to make the world a better place. So most... MORE
May 20, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
My earlier post suggesting a macro-less economics major drew some interesting comments. I agree with those who say that a student should choose courses on the basis of the professor rather than the topic--that was exactly the advice I gave... MORE
May 19, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
My youngest daughter (who is not an economics major, but is likely to take more courses in econ) was concerned that a course in environmental economics would be too squishy. I assured her that this ought to be a rigorous... MORE
May 7, 2008
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
1. I'll be in Europe for the first time since 2001 for Jon Elster's conference on "Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms" at the Collège de France in Paris. (It's open to the public, but space is limited). My wife and... MORE
March 20, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
This past weekend, my wife and I attended a sing-along. About fifty of us Baby Boomers, along with a few children and grandchildren, gathered with some guitars, banjos, and other instruments to sing the classic tunes of Woody Guthrie, Pete... MORE
March 14, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
In a recent comment, Troy Camplin pointed to a short story that he wrote a few years ago. Milton Wilcain was obviously not a very smart man...if he had been intelligent, he would have been allowed to keep his money... MORE
February 26, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Earlier, I posted a picture of four Masonomists. Now you can read the article. A sample: Controlling for income, Caplan explained, well-informed poor people favor very different policies than poor people who are not informed. Informed how? Well, he explained,... MORE
February 25, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Bryan, Robin, Alex, and Tyler: Lots more pix here. Taken to accompany an article in Doublethink that should be online soon. Note that Bryan is in his classroom teaching uniform. Recall that in Masonomics I made the Beatles comparison.... MORE
January 31, 2008
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Are you a great but untenured communicator of economic ideas? If so, here's a contest you should seriously consider entering. Good luck!... MORE
January 8, 2008
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Professor Donald Lacombe of Ohio University is offering a course in Econoblogging! Will this test Tyler's assertion that the best way to learn economics nowadays is through blogs? In addition to blogs, a venerable source of economic wisdom is the... MORE
November 30, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Yesterday I gave a talk for GMU TV (pre-recorded; not sure when it will broadcast). My host declared that I would have made a "great '60s radical" and compared me to reading Eldridge Cleaver. The big message of my book,... MORE
November 23, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Who wouldn't want to see Tyler Cowen publicly debate Robin Hanson? Well, aside from the masses? I think they'd both be willing, if they could only pinpoint a good topic. A while back they had an extended blog dialogue (see... MORE
November 4, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
EconTalk, the podcasting sister of Econlog run by the noble Russ Roberts, has been nominated for a 2007 Weblog award. Vote here, and may the best podcaster win.... MORE
November 1, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
The blogosphere has honed your writing skills; now it's time to cash in. Here's two more essay contests to try:2007-08 APEE Essay Contest on the Benefits of a Free Market EconomyIHS Essay Contest for Undergraduate StudentsI'd like to see the... MORE
October 29, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Although it's a painful download, Tyler Cowen's talk on economics blogging is really outstanding. It runs quite counter to the angst that seems to be showing up lately on Greg Mankiw's blog. One question that Tyler addresses is, "Why economics?"... MORE
September 29, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Arnold's very down on journalists:When you get an answer that works with five-year-olds, you can move on to try and explain it to journalists. For journalists, the market only exists to cause problems (it's like Matt Ridley's complaint that the... MORE
September 28, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Bryan asks, can you write an economically sound answer to the question "When [i.e., why] Did Life For the Poor Get Better?" that a five-year-old could understand? When you get an answer that works with five-year-olds, you can move on... MORE
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
is here. His topic is the four types of bias that non-economists hold. He concludes, Economists have a love-hate relationship with systematic bias. As theorists, they deny its existence. But when they teach, address the public, or wonder what is... MORE
September 27, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Timothy Taylor, one of my favorite economists, has a textbook that you can read for free, provided you are willing to put up with registering at the site and having some of the pages be ads. I thought that the... MORE
September 23, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Reader Chris Morgan asks, Your frequent, insightful critiques of the weaknesses in mainstream Ph.D. curriculum's has made me ponder this (you do have this question coming): if you were to put together a Ph.D. program, what would be (1) essential... MORE
September 16, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
William Becker argues, Any professor of economics can identify the field's traditional basic concepts. The trick is to recognize and articulate the shortcomings of simplistic analysis before students rightly dismiss it as irrelevant and then wrongly dismiss all of economics... MORE
September 3, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Arnold asks:OK, so Bryan's latest book is on stupid voters. One solution is to educate them. But his next to-be-written book, on education, says that education is merely a signal of ability. The data on GRE scores arguably validates that.... MORE
September 2, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Reader Randall Parker called my attention to Steve Sailer's post on GRE scores by intended field of study. The scores are on verbal reasoning and math. Generally speaking, if an intended field of study draws people with higher verbal reasoning... MORE
August 27, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
I recommend Robert Frank's lecture and Paul Romer talking about economic growth, as interviewed by Russ Roberts. Frank discusses economic education. He says that studies show that six months after an economics course, students are no better at answering basic... MORE
August 9, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Commenters on a previous post asked for my test of economics. I will have to work on putting one together that maps to the national curriculum. Meanwhile, here are three old self-assessment quizzes from a few years ago: Trade Social... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Michael Cannon describes how the self-selection process in politics works against my ideas for reforming health care. “Insulation” is another term for spending Other People’s Money. Politicians are predisposed not to see spending Other People’s Money as a problem, because... MORE
August 7, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
According to Tyler Cowen, it's right here. He says (it's an interview with Bloomberg's Tom Keene) that right now blogs are the best place to learn economics. Probably not if your goal is to pass the exam. But it's an... MORE
July 31, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
This is easy for Greg Mankiw to say. I have long thought that a year of economics should be standard in high school, much as American history is now. I even have a good textbook to recommend. I think that... MORE
July 8, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
This fall in Harvard's introductory class, I think Greg Mankiw should have his students watch The Call of the Entrepreneur. One of the segments is a clear explanation given by a Wall Street lawyer of the value added by financial... MORE
May 18, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
The wise Alex Tabarrok just pointed out a fun fact: My best book publicity is coming from textbook authors: Greg Mankiw David Romer via Brad Delong Alan Blinder Tyler and Alex himself (textbook in progress) If I taught classes with... MORE
May 1, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'm going to be on the BBC's "Thinking Allowed" program tomorrow at 11 AM EST, 4 PM London time. In case you haven't guessed, I'll be talking about my book.... MORE
April 28, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
This summer, I'll be giving my first series of IHS Liberty and Society lectures. The seminar is at Wake Forest University, June 2-8. The bad news: The application deadline is over. The good news: You can still email conference organizer... MORE
April 23, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
The book is The Making of an Economist, Redux. It provides facts, analysis, and opinions of the graduate programs at top economics departments. I'll excerpt a few sentences, and then I'll add my opinion of what I would like to... MORE
March 7, 2007
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Enter the Garvey Fellowship Contest by writing an essay on foreign aid. They gave me first prize when I was in grad school; the next winner could be you!... MORE
March 6, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Greg Mankiw writes, Having observed many failed textbook projects over the years (I won't mention names), I notice several predictable pitfalls. They include: ...The author has views of the field that are too idiosyncratic to appeal to the vast majority... MORE
January 17, 2007
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Michael Mandel says no. Proposed definition: Economics is the study of the functioning--and malfunctioning--of the economy, with the aim of improving living standards My justification for a different definition is that there are big chunks of the economy where scarcity... MORE
December 6, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I've argued that student essay contests are a sweet deal. Here's another example: the Economic Communicators Contest, sponsored by the Association for Private Enterprise Education.... MORE
December 4, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Jane Galt ably defends my co-blogger against the charge of hackdom, and raises an important challenge in the process:If the word "hack" has never come out of your lips (or keyboard) in public reference to someone on your own side,... MORE
November 28, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
According to the NYT, libertarians ruled Washington during the Clinton era: FOR years, the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party, exercising a lock on the party’s economic policies, argued that the economy could achieve sustained growth only if markets were... MORE
November 23, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
The worst thing about Thanksgiving is the boredom. Fortunately, there's a great solution: Treat your captive audience to a slice of economic controversy. Immigration? Inequality? Polygamy? It's all good. Now if, like me, you're having Thanksgiving with a bunch of... MORE
November 14, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Edward Glaeser writes, thorough general education requirement on the scientific approach to society would require two courses. First, students should take a course that teaches the crafting of rigorous hypotheses. ... Second, students should take a class on evidence and... MORE
November 8, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Walter Williams writes Professors James Gwartney (Florida State University), Richard Stroup (Montana State University) and Dwight Lee (Georgia University), three longtime colleagues of mine, have recently published "Common Sense Economics." It's a small book, less than 200 pages, that addresses... MORE
November 2, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
My chairman Don Boudreaux continues to hone his sense of economic ridicule: If, unlike me, you accept the logic of Ms. Lee's argument that it's wrong to let American consumers buy goods made by workers who toiled under government-regulatory standards... MORE
November 1, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Professors don't get paid for good essays, but students do! The truth about essay contests is that the number of submissions is usually absurdly low considering the size of the prizes and the opportunity cost of students' time. Your latest... MORE
September 14, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Does anyone out there know any AP Statistics teachers? They might be interested in using an interactive web site that I am working on. If so, tell them to get in touch with me. I have only a few slots... MORE
September 8, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen invites me to add to a list of experiences that he recommends for a young economics major. His list is a good one. One thing that I would add is that you spend several months living in a... MORE
August 20, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
"Jane Galt" asks her readers 1) Why do you read blogs? 2) Why do you read economics blogs, specifically? 3) What are your favourite economics blogs? 4) Even more specifically, why do you read this blog? 5) What are your... MORE
July 16, 2006
Economic Education
Eric Crampton
Oppenheimer writes in favour of opinionated teaching. Kelly-Woessner and Woessner find that this may not be the best route to strong teaching evaluations. Both perceived ideological and partisan differences between student and instructor reduce course evaluation scores, with partisan differences... MORE
July 15, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
My former student, Isaac DiIanni, wrote the lead letter in the current issue of the Economist. Congratulations, Isaac - yet another way my students have surpassed me. :-)... MORE
July 14, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I'll be on vacation in Southern California for the next two weeks, and out of internet contact for most of the first. But never fear, the excellent Prof. Eric Crampton of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand will be... MORE
July 12, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I have updated my CV and my Academic Economics page. With the exception of my book (for which only the Preface and Chapter 1 are available), you can now download virtually any research I've done during the past nine years.... MORE
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Walter Antoniotti has compiled a big list of free online textbooks in economics, business, statistics, etc. I glanced at one of the economics sites, Cybereconomics by Robert E. Schenk, and it looked quite good. I also liked the Quick Notes... MORE
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, Two core groups of people are well-suited to be economists: 1. You math GRE score is over 800, you are totally focused, you love working long hours on your own, and you have good enough letters of... MORE
June 26, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
From the 1970's, a great half-hour interview. Thanks to Robert Lawson for the pointer.... MORE
June 14, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
I just came across a chuckle-worthy piece by Russ Roberts on Monopoly - the game, not the market structure: Monopoly is the ultimate zero-sum game. You profit only by taking from others. The assets of its world are fixed in... MORE
May 7, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Looking back on my childhood, I heard a lot of economically absurd statements. But I didn't recognize them as absurd at the time. Teachers and parents said stuff, and I believed them. The first time I encountered economic absurdity and... MORE
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Both Greg Mankiw and Tyler Cowen recommend an article by the Freakonomics team of Levitt and Dubner in the New York Times on the research of Anders Ericsson into the development of skills by experts. Deliberate practice entails more than... MORE
April 12, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
In an ongoing discussion, Bryan writes, why are there so few libertarian academic philosophers? And why do economists across the political spectrum have so much more appreciation for the benefits of markets than the general public, the typical college grad,... MORE
April 11, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Arnold writes: I had lunch today with a friend whose daughter is planning to major in philosophy, with minors in religious studies and classics. My reaction was to say (to my friend's horror), "Sounds like she could be on the... MORE
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Greg Mankiw writes, In my utopia, everyone would study the principles of economics in high school, just as everyone now studies American history. Understanding basic economics is essential for being an intelligent voter. I would be out of a job... MORE
April 2, 2006
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
He writes, This blog is an experiment, primarily aimed at interacting with students in Ec 10, the large introductory economics class that I teach at Harvard. Other students and teachers using my textbooks may find it of interest as well.... MORE
January 1, 2006
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Reflecting on the best social science of 2005, it is striking how much of it appears in The Onion. Here are just a few articles that provide more insight than the typical publication in the American Economic Review: Bush to... MORE
November 23, 2005
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
Arnold has a thought-provoking new hypothesis about "Why People Hate Economics": Paul Bloom's essay "Is God an Accident?" in the latest issue of The Atlantic, suggests that humans' belief in God, Intelligent Design, and the afterlife is an artifact of... MORE
October 17, 2005
Economics of Health Care
Arnold Kling
This documentary attempts to make vivid the weakness of the Canadian health care system. It begins by showing how attached Canadians are to the principle of government-provided health care, but then exposes the consequences in terms of waiting times, suffering,... MORE
September 22, 2005
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
The online Wall Street Journal hosts a discussion with Russell Roberts and William Polley on the topic of economic education. Roberts writes, Whenever I teach a seminar on basic economics, I always survey the audience: What proportion of the American... MORE
September 1, 2005
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Michael Mandel writes, Four years of falling earnings for the college-educated. That hasn't happened since the 1970s... The only people doing well have advanced degrees. The world has changed. Just college is no longer enough. I'm basically an optimist, but... MORE
August 29, 2005
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
For a classroom exercise, my daughter just asked me to define influence and to name the most influential person in world history. My definition of influence was, "the ability to change people's minds," and I chose John Locke, although I... MORE
May 7, 2005
Economic Education
Bryan Caplan
People don't like economists, and they don't listen to us. Economists who want to influence public opinion often connect the two problems. Maybe if we had tact, manners, and warmth, we wouldn't turn off our audience. And if we didn't... MORE
April 29, 2005
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
More educated people think more like economists. It's one of the big findings in my piece in the 2001 Journal of Law and Economics. And that's controlling for income, income growth, job security, gender, ideology, and party. It's a big... MORE
March 23, 2005
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
The bubble in economics blogs continues to inflate. One of the newer entrants is Freakonomics, from Steve Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. I am becoming more and more dependent on William Parke's Economics Roundtable. At some point, the number of... MORE
March 2, 2005
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
In a wide-ranging essay, I question the dominance of math in advanced economics. The raising of the mathematical bar in graduate schools over the past several decades has driven many intelligent men and women (perhaps women especially) to pursue other... MORE
February 23, 2005
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
One of my favorite examples to use in a first-year economics class is the movie business. For one thing, it's easy to explain adjusting for inflation when you talk about comparing the box office receipts of movies of different eras.... MORE
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Apparently, there is a scarcity of economics professors. According to the Wall Street Journal, According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, salaries for economics teachers, a category that includes professors, averaged nearly $140,000 a year -- based on a 52-week... MORE
December 24, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
After studying leading graduate economics textbooks in micro, macro, and industrial organization, Dan Johansson writes, Among the 19 books, only 2 references are made to entrepreneur, only 5 to institutions, only 8 to property rights, and not a single reference... MORE
December 1, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Bernard Saffran, known to many economists for his regular column in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, died suddenly of a heart attack on Monday. When I was an undergraduate, I took most of my economics courses from Bernie. I wrote... MORE
November 17, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Walter E. Williams writes, Why are Florida's hurricanes a "plus"? It's simple. According to St. Petersburg Times reporter Joni James, "Construction creates thousands of jobs, insurance provides for billions in consumer purchases, and new facilities built to higher standards might... MORE
October 22, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Teaching a class with 90 students gives me a newfound appreciation of multiple-choice tests. One of my objections to them has been that questions are not robust, in that students' answers may not reflect their knowledge. My concern is that... MORE
October 11, 2004
Politics and Economics
Arnold Kling
My latest essay says that it's not pretty. Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry managed to appeal to all four of the economically ignorant biases identified in Caplan's paper. You could say that Kerry hit the economic illiteracy quadrifecta! ...it is... MORE
October 10, 2004
Growth: Causal Factors
Arnold Kling
People with what Bryan Caplan calls "pessimistic bias" see the world in zero-sum terms, or worse. Kevin Brancato points out a pattern in Bill Gates' thinking that is just the opposite: "China and India are the big change agents for... MORE
October 7, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
If I think that economics students should be given ratings like tournament chess players, then naturally I would like this suggestion from David Tufte for evaluating academic research, maintaining quality, and speeding up the process. Send 2 papers to an... MORE
October 6, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Last week, I got together with Russ Roberts of Cafe Hayek. Yesterday, I had lunch with Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution and two not-yet-blogging economists, Robin Hanson and Bryan Caplan. Several topics came up that are worth some comment. Economics... MORE
October 3, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
First, just a technical note. A fellow named Chris Cardinale sent me a tip that software called "Total Recorder" from a web site highcriteria.com creates really small sound files from .wav files. I downloaded and registered the software, for twelve... MORE
September 27, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Bryan Caplan summarizes some evidence. One of the first things that stands out is anti-foreign bias. When they contemplate economic interaction with foreigners, the general public gets unreasonably negative... A second major pattern in the public's economic illiteracy is make-work... MORE
September 26, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen asks, Why don't econ bloggers post their classroom and public lectures? I already do. I add one or two per week. The latest one includes an interactive quiz. I record them using an Olympus DS330 digital voice recorder.... MORE
September 22, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
My TechCentralStation friends let me write a pitch for my book. I believe that economists have a right to feel that we have superior knowledge on issues of public policy. However, the implication of this is not that we should... MORE
September 14, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Finally, Learning Economics is available for purchase. You may order it here. Some endorsements may be found here. The book starts out, Each year, thousands of people study economics, but not many learn it. Most of them leave their economics... MORE
September 12, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Brad DeLong writes, Economists are losing the battle for mindshare in public debates and discussions about the economy. Too much of what we economists write meets the technical canons of modern economics, but reaches a very small audience (if it... MORE
September 1, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
I have started teaching a class at George Mason called Economics and the Citizen It's been over 20 years since I taught at a college level, and I feel like Rip Van Winkle. After the first class, I was given... MORE
August 3, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
Tim Worstall points to Glenn Whitman's post about the "two things" that can summarize a profession's wisdom. For economics, he nominates: One: Incentives matter. Two: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. I don't think I like this game.... MORE
June 15, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
I speculate on the future of education. The first ongoing trend, one that affects the demand for education, is rapid technological change. As the pace of change continues, or even accelerates, it causes all human capital to depreciate more rapidly.... MORE
June 7, 2004
Economics of Health Care
Arnold Kling
In an interview, Milton Friedman explains why shifting education and health care from the market to the government is inefficient. There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you... MORE
March 9, 2004
Information Goods, Intellectual Property
Arnold Kling
What do you call a technology that looks promising but always lets you down? In this essay, I point out that one example is micropayments. Another example, I argue, is virtual classrooms. Most web-based education software seems designed to enable... MORE
February 27, 2004
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
In a polemic I wrote against academic tastes, I raise the question of why top universities remain successful. I suggest, The nation's top-tier colleges benefit from network and lock-in effects. No single Ivy League undergraduate has the incentive to attend... MORE
December 31, 2003
Economic Methods
Arnold Kling
A while back, we discussed whether math is necessary for economic education. Thomas Sowell gives his view. Introductory economics is too often taught as if the students in it were all potential economists who had to be introduced to the... MORE
December 19, 2003
International Trade
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen recommends James Buchanan's "The Soul of Classical Liberalism," an essay published three years ago. As Cowen points out, Buchanan is wrestling with tough philosophical issues. Here, I just want to focus on a few sentences that bear on... MORE
March 18, 2003
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
In this essay, I cited Steven Pinker on the value of teaching economics, but I concluded with doubts as to whether "economic idiotarianism" could be eradicated entirely with education. Consider this story about the movement for alternative economics, including a... MORE
January 26, 2003
Economic Education
Arnold Kling
When asked by edge.org's John Brockman what he would do if he were science advisor to the President, Steven Pinker's reply included: Observers from our best science writers to Jay Leno are frequently appalled by the innumeracy, factual ignorance, and... MORE
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