Issue 16, Fall 1998

William A. McEachern, Editor

Odds and Ends

* According to the most recent Statistical Abstracts of the United States, the number of economists employed in the U.S. civilian labor force increased from 98,000 in 1983 to 148,000 in 1996, a jump of 51% (1997, Table 645). As a point of reference, total civilian employment during the period increased 25.7%, so the growth in economists doubled the growth rate in overall employment. In 1983, 37.4% of economists were female, 6.3% were black, and 2.7% were Hispanic. In 1996, 54.4% were female, 3.9% were black, and 5.4% were Hispanic. There was a stunning increase among females.

* Forbes (9/21/98) just released estimates of highest paid celebrities for 1998. The top ten are 1. Jerry Seinfeld ($225M); 2. Larry David, co-developer of Seinfeld, ($200M); 3. Steven Spielberg ($175M); 4. Oprah Winfrey ($125M); 5. James Cameron, director of Titanic ($115M); 6. Tim Allen ($77M); 7. Michael Crichton ($65); 8. Harrison Ford ($58); 9. Rolling Stones ($57M); and 10. rapper Master P ($56M). Four of the top ten made their money primarily in television, three in movies, and two in music. Best selling author Crichton also writes for movies (Jurrasic Park) and television (E.R.). Technology has leveraged the value of good ideas, as most of those on the top could attest. Forbes speculates that Crichton "could probably sell the concepts in his head for a few hundred million." There's a tricky intellectual-property-rights issue-selling the stock of ideas in your head. That might make for an interesting class discussion.

* In the spring issue, I talked about the growth of experimental economics. Classroom Expernomics is a free on-line twice-yearly newsletter devoted to using economic experiments in the classroom. Articles explain the set-up and results of experiments, providing the reader enough information (and often the appropriate forms) to conduct such an experiment in class. Recent topics include the efficient market hypothesis, a saving-consumption game, and selling seats through an English auction. Now in its seventh year, the newsletter is edited by Greg Delemeester of Marietta College and John Neral of Frostburg State University. The Web address is: http://www.marietta.edu/~delemeeg/expernom.html.

* I couldn't find the Web site this year for mock voting on the Nobel Laureate in Economic Science. It had been conducted by Technical University Berlin. Given the dismal predictive capacity of the poll over the last few years, the sponsors may have figured that it wasn't worth the effort. If you listen to reports in the media, particularly with regard to the collapse of the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management, you would think the Royal Swedish Academy should withdraw last year's award to Robert Merton and Myron Scholes, two guiding lights in the hedge fund's losing strategy. Economists at the International Monetary Fund also seem to be taking public lumps over the IMFs handling of world financial panics.

* "Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown proposed as things forgot."
--Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

* "I had one fundamental question about economics: Why do some places prosper and thrive while others just suck?"
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Love, Death, and Money

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