Thursday, July 28, 2011

Mark Thoma vs Larry Summers

Mark and Larry discuss whether academic economists should listen more to practitioners.

The discussion is interesting, but unfortunately devoid of much evidence.  Let me note the following fact: If you look at the most influential economics research, you will find that relatively little of it came from interactions between academics and practitioners.  For example, Larry has eight articles on this list of greatest hits (an impressive achievement), but they were all written before his substantial "real world" experiences.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Rainbow Fish, Revised

If you are familiar with the classic children's story The Rainbow Fish, you might enjoy this revised version. If you aren't, you might click here first to listen to the story in its original version.