Issue 26, Spring 2004

William A. McEachern, Editor

The Grapevine

It's been a while since I reported on economic Weblogs, or "blogs." I'll say a little about each site and the blogger's background. I am limiting this brief survey to bloggers with Ph.D.s in economics who blog more than once a week. Brad DeLong of the University of California, Berkeley, still has the best site (www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/) in terms of quality, timeliness, and the frequency of entries (I discussed this blog in the Fall 2002 issue). My only question is: does Professor DeLong have a life? Tyler Cowen of George Mason University blogs at Marginal Revolution (http://www.marginalrevolution.com/). He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard and is Director of the James Buchanan Center. Another blogger on that site is Alexander Tabarrok, an associate professor of economics at George Mason University with a Ph.D. from there. He is also research director at the Independent Institute. The Knowledge Problem: Commentary of Economics, Information, and Human Action (http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/) is written by Lynne Kiesling, director of economic policy for the libertarian Reason Foundation in Chicago. Her focus is on oil prices, hydrogen power, and the electrical grid. She also teaches at Northwestern, where she earned a Ph.D. EconoPundit: Economics News and Views (http://www.econopundit.com/) is written by Steve Antler of Roosevelt University in Chicago. Although Professor Antler has written for The Nation, his blog is eclectic with a market orientation. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and is also a "semiprofessional" magician. Newmark's Door (http://newmarksdoor.typepad.com/mainblog/), is Craig Newmark's of North Carolina State University take on "Things one middle-aged economist finds interesting." He has a Ph.D. from UCLA. ARGMAX: Economic News, Data, and Analysis (http://www.argmax.com/) is written by John Irons, Senior Economic Research and Policy Analyst and Staff Economist at OMB Watch, a Washington D.C. nonprofit organization. Before that, he taught at Amherst. He earned a Ph.D. from M.I.T. I haven't yet come across any blogs by economists with a focus on teaching (as opposed to economic issues of the day). Suggestions are welcome.

Craig Freedman of Macquarie University in Australia has profiled the teaching career of George Stigler. He sums it up as follows: "For most students, economics is painfully nonintuitive, but Stigler saw no reason to compromise. He unequivocally spoke in the shorthand of his profession, refusing to make links obvious. Like his teachers before him, Stigler expected his students to battle their way to his level. To use a modern term, he was distinctly 'user unfriendly.' His own textbook was a clear example of that tendency…It is written for the instructor rather than the student."(p. 287) Stigler's approach no doubt worked for some students, but probably not most. See "Do Great Economists Make Great Teachers?" Journal of Economic Education, (Summer 2003), which can be found at http://www.indiana.edu/~econed/.

But there is no question that some great economists are great teachers. I found James Buchanan organized, stimulating, and inspiring. He had graduate students critique recent journal articles; several of these critiques were published as comments in journals such as The Review of Economics and Statistics. Some great economists can get their point across through sheer enthusiasm. For example, William Sjostrom of National University of Ireland writes in his blog: "In grad school at the University of Washington, I learned microeconomics from Stephen Cheung. He was a wretched teacher by any conventional measure. He never came to class prepared. What he did was walk into class and talk about whatever problem he was thinking about. (Why do all the good seats sell out first?) He was amazing. He used to say, in his heavy Chinese accent, "Economics so powerful, it scares me" (http://www.atlanticblog.com).

In the Fall 2003 issue of The Teaching Economist, I related an exam excuse from a student who broke his leg running to get to my quiz. Two weeks later that student was addled on a midterm exam because of medication he took for the leg pain. Don Coffin, of Indiana University Northwest, believes he can top that. His student called on the morning of the exam to say he couldn't make it. As the student put it, "I was in my living room last night, studying for the test, when I heard a noise outside. I went out on my porch and two guys were stripping my car. I yelled 'Hey. Cut that out.' And one of them pulled out a gun and shot me in the leg…It's on page 47 of today's paper." Professor Coffin opened the paper and found the account. Case closed—another otherwise eager test-taker taken down by a leg injury. I invite you to tap into your years of experience and share exceptional excuses with colleagues here in The Grapevine.

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