New School Economic Review

Samuelson: “Look to History”

by Benjamin on June 24, 2009

Conor Clark has been interviewing Paul Samuelson for The Atlantic and the good professor, who at 94 is still very productive, had a new piece of advice for economics Graduate students:

Well, I’d say, and this is probably a change from what I would have said when I was younger: Have a very healthy respect for the study of economic history, because that’s the raw material out of which any of your conjectures or testings will come.

Once that is accomplished, the recommendation is to go empirical on the past, but not necesserily in the context of a formal model.

History doesn’t tell its own story. You’ve got to bring to it all the statistical testings that are possible. And we have a lot more information now than we used to.

So that’s the new wisdom from the man who brought us the Foundations of Economic Analysis, who had this to say about that classic:

With the Foundations, I looked around for the best bicycle in town. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than what had been assigned previously.

The interview is in two parts covering everything from Larry Summers through Mankiw, the crisis and much much more, here and here, while a tip of the hat goes to Stephen Kinsella for reading and commenting on the interviews in the first place.

Well, I’d say, and this is probably a change from what I would have said when I was younger: Have a very healthy respect for the study of economic history, because that’s the raw material out of which any of your conjectures or testings will come

Toxic Economic Textbooks

by Benjamin on May 19, 2009

The Post Autistic Economic Review – now known under the uninspiring sobriquet Real World Economic Review – is pushing a new movement against the problems of traditional textbooks in economics – Toxic Textbooks – saying they are to blame for the recent problems amongst other things.

The current economic meltdown is not the result of natural causes or human conspiracy, but because society at all levels became infected with false beliefs regarding the nature of economic reality. And the primary sources of this infection are the “neoclassical” or “mainstream” textbooks long used in introductory economics courses in universities throughout the world.

This is not a new complaint, in fact it’s been around a while, but the language has certainly gotten a lot stronger in this call for student action. Textbooks are however here to stay so this also requires academics to write ‘good’ textbooks, which is a challenge, which would avoid the problems outlined in the Toxic Textbook Manifesto.

Every year these “mainstream” books serve to indoctrinate millions of students in a quaint ideology (perfect rationality of economic agents, market efficiency, the invisible hand, etc.) cunningly disguised as science. This mass miseducation deprives society of the moral and intellectual capacities it needs in order to design and maintain the support systems required by market economies.

Educating educators

by Benjamin on May 11, 2009

A topic close to my heart is the quality of teaching in universities, or sometimes the lack of it. A good lecturer inspires us while a bad lecturer can truly kill the wish to study any subject. In this sense it baffles me that we do not teach ‘presentations & teaching’ to graduate students, or at least to Ph.D. Students. Even the undergraduates could benefit from such a subject.

Creating interesting and good presentations is a skill which people retain for life. The ability to pitch a project to investors, present a technical subject or convince 100 undergrads of a theoretical idea all fall under the same heading of ‘presentation’. So why don’t we focus on doing more about it in higher education?

I suspect part of the answer lies with the fact that the academics who actually put on a really good lecture, don’t know how to teach that skill to others. When I say “Really Good” I am talking about the stuff that Al Gore does in his environmental talks, I am talking about Steve Jobs MacWorld Keynote Speeches, I am thinking of documentaries like Planet Earth and adverts which resonate and stay with us, like this 2006 Argentinian election ad. They are all memorable, interesting and informs the audience, much like the “Lost Generation” clip below, inspired by the Election Advert:

As lecturers and Teachers we should be inspirational. So I think that we in academia can learn a lot from people who give good presentations, and we can use it to our benefit in lectures. I am not suggesting that technical subjects should become cartoonish or silly entertainment, what I am suggesting is that lectures can be delivered (regardless of the topic) in interesting ways which motivates students, and not as repetitions of the text-book, (which students will read without you anyway). Not every talk needs slides, and not every talk needs problem solving, the issue is to know when each tool is appropriate as an interested audience is always key.

Some of my best lectures were on Gerrard Debreu’s Theory of Value (free here), a book I would recommend to no-one, but which was taught in a manner that made the topic and its author come alive. For those in the know, Debreu’s book is anything but fun, so if there is hope for that, imagine what can be done with exciting subjects like the development of whole nations or the political intrigue of growth policies? 

So what can be done? Can we teach people to do good presentations, not meaning 1 slide, 7 bullet points, 7 words, but something you could get on a stage with (a lecture hall is a stage) and interest your students – or friends? – with for two hours. (I invited a friend of mine to a lecture I gave after having harped on about teaching at home, and must admit I was a lot more nervous about her [educated] reaction to my presentation than my undergrads’ – I recommend it, it’s a good experiment in self-improvement / flagelation). I think teaching ‘presentation skills’ can be done, but I do not think that we are properly equipped to address the issue as academics yet. Simply because we haven’t been taught anything about doing good presentations or good lectures ourselves. For us it was assumed that we would catch on to good practice (or more likely, avoid the worst practice) as we sat through conferences, lectures and seminar talks. Osmosis, however, can only do so much, and there’s a lot to do learn before we can teach the next generation how to take to the stage in the world around us. Personally I am reading much more, and have been contributing to the British Economics Networks series on their ‘New Lecturers Workshop’ where I’ve just finished a quick 2k article on undergrad teaching [yup, shameless self-promotion, you spotted it], with some videos and references to things which I feel have impacted my own teaching in the last six months, It’s a long road ahead, but hey, it’s been a lot of fun so far.