« Assorted links | Main | Facts about occupational licensing »
What are economics blogs good for?
But the Harvard economist [Dani Rodrik] finds the blog — short for Web log — useful because it serves as a reference catalog for his ideas. “I now constantly Google my own blog for ideas that I knew I had at some point,” he says. “Previously, the ideas would have come and gone. The first good thing is that I have them a little more developed, and, secondly, I can actually recover them.”
Here is the whole story, on the rise of the econ blogosphere, which has much from yours truly. It is in this issue from the Richmond Fed, which has much of interest on economics and the economics profession. Here is an article on experimental vs. behavioral economics.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 15, 2008 at 01:58 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
I find my blog plays the same role. (And our family blog likewise, in terms of cataloguing our family's major activities. Every good quote I hear, brief comments on papers I've read, books I've read, etc. I haven't found a better way to catalog, as well as adding some marginal value in sharing the info.
Of course, that can't justify checking the blog statistics.
Posted by: dave at Oct 15, 2008 4:30:19 PM
What if the ideas get stolen by others, if you disclose them online?
Posted by: carolinian at Oct 15, 2008 4:50:22 PM
So, as the number of economics blogs increases, that must mean the economy is getting better.
Or are economics blogs like diet books: read but not applied -- or if applied, ineffective? ;)
Posted by: ZBicyclist at Oct 15, 2008 5:09:05 PM
It's interesting that the site -- short for World Wide Web site -- finds it necessary to define "blog" for its audience. But pray tell what is this "Google" you speak of?
Posted by: at Oct 15, 2008 5:51:44 PM
I think that blogs will play a revolutionary part when the history of the current financial crisis is written.
Ex-post explanations of any event are vulnerable to a number of biases. In the past, apart from sporadic columns and speeches by a handful of economists, it was tough to get inside the minds of economists as events unfolded. Scholarly articles take a long time to research and write, and so are subject to bias as well.
But thanks to the many prominent economists who blog, we have a real-time debate between dozens (or more) of economic professionals.
An example: six months hence, what non-blogging economist would be able to describe how his views evolved over the last six weeks? How did he feel on the Friday before Lehman Brothers collapsed? How was that different from after Lehman went under, but before AIG was bailed out? And after AIG was bailed out? Then there is the the dialogue that took place over the bailout proposals. A blog post in the morning could be completely overturned by the evening, based on the day's events.
Blogging didn't start taking off until about 2002. WordPress and TypePad debuted in 2003, the same year that Blogger was bought up by Google. Pardon the hyperbole, but we are now witnessing the largest historical event since blogging reached maturity (or at least adolescence). I think that the history of this crisis will be much more accurate, thanks to blogs' real-time repository of ideas.
Posted by: Rob F. at Oct 15, 2008 6:42:16 PM
Economic blogs are good for many reasons beyond a way to save an idea. Someone mentioned that “What if the ideas get stolen by others, if you disclose them online”? People don’t usually put secrets on a blog. People tend to put ideas that can and do generate a response or comment by others with the same interest or at least a curiosity for the subject being talked about. The informality of one’s writings in a blog allows for more diversity of the subject as well as the returned comments that might help to inspire the writer’s thoughts later.
Economics is a hard subject to understand even in a general sense. Add all the stories about the recent turmoil with what is happening around the world concerning corporate and nations alike, it is too much to try to understand by oneself. What better way to help to understand how it might affect all of us than to read what experts in the economic world have to say on the subject. It is away to read a short output about a single idea in the realm of today’s economics times.
Posted by: WCUoldcat8319 at Oct 15, 2008 8:18:34 PM
Econ blogs are making the term "dismal science" a clear misnomer. Thank
you Alex and Tyler for your extensive efforts on MR!
Posted by: indiana jim at Oct 15, 2008 10:11:10 PM
Blogs are, in a sense, near instant peer review. I like them, its a good way to communicate ideas and I see it as the future of economic and political discourse. Linking allows them to post large amounts of information, while the blog format keeps the information neat and easy to absorb.
Posted by: Jorge Landivar at Oct 16, 2008 2:18:42 AM
