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Blogging, Teaching, Learning
Alex TabarrokMarginal Revolution
Why do GMU Economists Blog?
GMU Blogs Marginal Revolution Café Hayek EconLog Overcoming Bias Coordination Problem and
others GMU economists also
Newspapers Radio Television Novels Rap videos.
Economics is Important for the World Economics teaches important lessons for human
welfare. Popular Physics vs.Popular economics It’s not vital that the public understand black
holes, it is vital that the public understand price controls. Citizens in a democracy need to understand
economics and its lessons. Principles of economics the most important economics
class. Educating future economists is important but
educating future citizens is even more important.
The World is our Classroom
Teaching not restricted to the classroom: the world is our classroom.
Blogs are an important communication tool.
Marginal Revolution among Top 100 blogs in the world.
Visitors from all over the world.
Marginal Revolution, World Visit Map, Oct-Nov, 2011
We have readers at WSJ, NYTimes, Financial Times, Treasury, Federal Reserve?
Similar story for others, e.g. Krugman and Freakonomics. The Lesson: Surprising Demand for Economics Knowledge.
Get to the point. Bite-sized posts with a little bit of fun.
Dim Sum for the mind. Don’t assume that limited attention
span means limited learning. Depth comes in following the
conversation, repeated visits and links. Don’t underestimate the audience.
Teaching the World Using Blogs
Lessons for Textbook Writing Be vivid, make every word count. First sentence from a well-known economics textbook:
The word economy comes from the Greek word oikonomos, which means “one who manages a household.”
First sentence, Modern Principles:
The prisoners were dying of scurvy, typhoid fever, and smallpox but nothing was killing them more than bad incentives.
Blogging on the Cutting Edge Prior to ~2008 lots of applied
Freakonomics type material. Then in 2008 the world went to hell. Blogs have become the first place for
policy debate and policy development.
Why?
Blogs: Fast, Open, Robust Fast
Journal time vs. Real Time. Open
Anyone can enter the conversation. Robust
Debate, discussion and development. Facts are important. All bugs are shallow with enough eyes.
Crowdsourcing Microbiology
Crowdsourcing Mathematics Polymath project. Tim Gowers, Fields
Medalist, proposed massive collaboration as a way to find a new combinatorial proof to the density version of the Hales–Jewett theorem.
Problem solved within 6-weeks!
Crowdsourcing Economics Scott Sumner and NGDP targeting. From blog to
OMC debate in 3 years. Gary Gorton and shadow banking. Housing, finance, monetary, fiscal, structural issues. Paul Krugman and working out debt transference
problem. Back and forth between policy and model.
Brad DeLong, Nick Rowe and others working to reconcile Fisherian, Wicksellian, Keynesian policy frameworks.
Treasury, Federal Reserve and elsewhere. Blogs have become especially important for
economic policy.
Economic Policy and Cleverness v. Wisdom Journals reward cleverness.
Prove that the model works, given the assumptions. Realism of assumptions doesn’t matter (much). Application to policy in or two paragraphs at the end. Can be refereed.
Policy requires wisdom. From the 10 models available which are the most
relevant? Assumptions are critical as is knowing something
about the world. Do the assumptions apply? Economic history of great use. Constraints of history, psychology, and politics are
importance. Hard to referee.
Policy and Economics
Economics on the blogs is less about formal proofs more about combining economics, politics, psychology, history, and law to make useful advice.
Need a new term:
The Return of Political Economy
Conclusions
Blogging is teaching The world is your classroom. There is a demand for accessible economics.
Blogging is learning and researching Changes the questions we ask Changes acceptable answers▪ Facts▪ History▪ Law
Blogging is the Return of Political Economy.