Monday, August 07, 2006

Invisible hand on the keyboard

The Economist runs a typically punchy article on blogging by economists.

The post discusses the blogs of Brad Delong, Becker-Posner and Greg Mankiw all of which are on my blogroll. A blog that I hadn't come across before is by Brad Setser .

It also discusses the impact of blogging on academic productivity. Following Han Kim, Adair Morse & Luigi Zingales's, 'Are Elite Universities Loosing Their Competitive Edge' The Economist asks whether the internet's ability to spread knowledge beyond particular universities has decreased the value of elite faculty hires.


The answer is that it does which is what you would expect. There is also the suggestion that those with influential blogs will command a good market price - microphones can be turned into megaphones. So please read my blog and improve my marketability!

3 comments:

Lisa said...

I hate the way how economists who blog are overly concerned with the earning potential of their blog. Ideas and good quality commentary has earning potential, not the conduit through which you express them :)

I like how reading blogs -- especially those of economists -- occaisionally exposes me to right-wing opinion.

hc said...

In my case Lisa I don't advertise and get nothing from my postings other than ego satisfaction. I agree it is the quality of ideas that matters.

I don't agree with the general characterisation of economics blogs as right-wing. While I am fairly socially conservative I am an economic liberal - not a 1-D spectrum. Bloggers such as John Quiggin are social democrats and Andrew Leigh are middle roaders.

Anonymous said...

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