Free exchange at Economist.com claims that "The economics blogosphere is now deeper and broader than that of any other non-technological academic field..." I have no idea if this is true, though given the number of economics blogs I know are out there and the general lack of interest in blogs that I've seen from academics as a group, I can certainly believe it. But what I find interesting/frustrating about the economics blogosphere is that it seems that the vast majority of econ blogs are macro-oriented (i.e., they talk primarily about fiscal and monetary policy, 'the economy', growth, etc.). There are some obvious exceptions, such as Freakonomics and Marginal Revolution. And I wonder whether those blogs are so popular because they focus more on the micro principles that lead economists to claim that 'economics is everywhere' (of course, I'm sure it doesn't hurt that the primary authors of these blogs have also written popular books - Tim Harford's Undercover Economist is another micro-oriented favorite). I just can't figure out why there aren't more like them, particularly given that among economists working in academia, there are certainly more microeconomists than macro. Of course, I certainly haven't explored every econ blog out there but I recently discovered the list of economics blogs at the AcademicBlogs wiki so as I make my way through that list, I'll try to post about any interesting micro-oriented blogs I came across...
By now, you may have heard about the biology professor at Louisiana State (Baton Rouge) who was removed from teaching an intro course where "more than 90 percent of the students... were failing or had dropped the class." The majority of the comments on the Inside Higher Ed story about it are supportive of the professor, particularly given that it seems like the administration did not even talk to her about the situation before acting. I tend to fall in the "there's got to be more to the story so I'll reserve judgment" camp but the story definitely struck a nerve with me, partly because I recently spent 30 minutes "debating" with a student about whether the last midterm was "too hard" and the whole conversation was super-frustrating. To give some background: I give three midterms and a cumulative final, plus have clicker points and Aplia assignments that make up about 20% of the final grade. I do not curve individual exams but will cu
There are some I-O related blogs, although they tend to be law-heavY
ReplyDeleteOligoipoly Watch
http://www.oligopolywatch.com/
Against Monopoly
http://www.againstmonopoly.org/
And some game-theoretic ones:
CoreEcon
http://economics.com.au/
And some management-oriented ones:
Organizations and Markets:
http://organizationsandmarkets.com/
Management Research and Development
http://managementrandd.blogspot.com/
Those are the ones I have bookmarked at home; I think I have more at work.
I've seen a couple of these linked at other economists' blogs as well and will have to check them out. Thanks!
ReplyDelete