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Blogging, Teaching, Learning

Alex Tabarrok Marginal Revolution. Blogging, Teaching, Learning. 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.

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Blogging, Teaching, Learning

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  1. Alex Tabarrok Marginal Revolution Blogging, Teaching, Learning

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. The World is our Classroom • Teaching not restricted to the classroom: the world is our classroom. • Blogs are an important communication tool. • Marginal Revolution amongTop 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 andFreakonomics. • The Lesson:Surprising Demand for Economics Knowledge.

  5. Teaching the World Using Blogs • 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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 policydebate and policy development. • Why?

  8. 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.

  9. Crowdsourcing Microbiology

  10. 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!

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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

  14. 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.

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