Category Archives: Teaching Economics
Should Policymakers or Macro Models Be Taken to the Woodshed?
There’s a good debate going on about the usefulness of macro models, and in particular whether the so-called New Keynesian models let us down or even helped bring on the financial crisis and the Great Recession. This weekend Noah Smith … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Crisis, Teaching Economics
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Why Did CBO Wait?
Why did the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) wait until now to inform the Congress and the rest of the country about the large negative effects of Obamacare on employment and hours of work? (See CBO Budget and Economic Outlook pp 117-127). The … Continue reading
Posted in Regulatory Policy, Teaching Economics
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Short Course on Policy Rules–Including Yellen’s Variant
In a recent interesting article, “The Yellen Fed? Precise and Predictable,” Catherine Rampell assesses Janet Yellen along the discretion/rules-based dimension rather than the hawk/dove dimension which so many others have focused on. Quoting several people, including me, the article suggests … Continue reading
Posted in Monetary Policy, Teaching Economics
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Congratulations Gene Fama, Lars Hansen and Bob Shiller
The Nobel Prize Committee chose very well in awarding the prize for the important individual contributions of each economist. And focusing on the group as a whole makes sense too. Fama put forth the efficient market idea that securities prices … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching Economics
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A New Economics 1 at Stanford
Tomorrow Stanford embarks on a new principles of economics course at the introductory level. For the first time since the financial crisis we will be teaching the course in one term. I will be doing the inaugural course consisting of … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching Economics
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Jackson Hole: Then and Now
Quite a few people expressed interest in my tweet on the very high ratio of men to women at the 1982 Jackson Hole conference: 23 to 1. A CNN Money story and Justin Wolfers tweet reported 6 to 1 this year. Some … Continue reading
Posted in Monetary Policy, Teaching Economics
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Economics One for Preschoolers
Meghan Cox Gurdon has a nice review article in the Wall Street Journal celebrating Richard Scarry’s books for children. This is the 50th anniversary of “Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever.” I’ve been reading some of Scarry’s books to my … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching Economics
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Make Replication Easy in Economics
An interesting profile “The Dismal Science’s Crusading Voice: Economist Bruce McCullough Continues a Largely Solitary Push to Require Replication in Research” just published in the Wall Street Journal highlights the importance of replication in economics and how elusive that goal … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching Economics
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Notes on an Economics Graduation
I like graduations. Sunday was Stanford’s. It was a beautiful day, especially for economics graduates, who gathered under a big tent with family and friends in front of Stanford’s Hoover Tower, listened to a fascinating speech on matching by Nobel Prize … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching Economics
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Unforgettable Economics Lessons in Tombstone
Last night Yang Jisheng was awarded the 2012 Hayek Prize for his book Tombstone about the Chinese famine of 1958-1962. It’s an amazing book. It starts with Yang Jisheng returning home as a teenager to find a ghost town, trees … Continue reading
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Economics One 