Friday 5 February 2010

A little economics goes a long way

Via Cafe Hayek, a nice (award winning!) video put together by some GMU undergrads on the corrupting effect that economics can have.



Sarah's friends complain that she's become intolerable since taking economics.

Sounds like what I often hear back in student evaluations:
  • "I am now more irritating than ever, sparring with others not just on policy issues but general decision-making as well."
  • "Awesome course, I wish I could take something like this next year :( It's helped provoke many arguments with my flatmates and annoyed my girlfriend when I start rambling on about some economic i..."
  • "Learnt tonnes. Had many a-discussion with friends after lectures as what is taught is extremely interesting and 'fun' to think/argue about."
  • "I have often found myself explaining the theories learnt in class to family and friends."
A GMU education is for folks who love economics. I'm glad I can spread that around a bit too down at the far end of the world. I'm particularly pleased that of the 11 students in this year's incoming honours cohort at Canterbury, 7 have taken my public choice class (a very high proportion for an elective). The Gnomes of Canterbury return.....

5 comments:

  1. I can vouch for the awesomeness of Eric's Public Choice class.

    I don't think I ever appreciated how good the department is when taking an economics degree at canterbury. Alan Woodfield's Law and Economics class and Laura Meriluoto's Industrial Organization class were also great courses.

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  2. For students or researchers: I have just added an Economics Reference List to my economics blog with economic and statistical data series, history, bibliographies etc. for students & researchers, probably the most comprehensive on the Internet. Currently over 200 meta sources, it will soon grow to over a thousand. Check it out and if you miss something, feel free to leave a comment.

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  3. Get busy Prof. We have voters who believe their money is created from fairy dust, and those who have an inkling of economics. The more anti-fairydustians we have, the better the chances of a free and prosperous NZ.

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  4. Last night I had a discussion with a street preacher about the marginal incentives not to sin.

    He said the first sin you commit will send you to hell forever unless you repent. I asked him what happened if you sinned again - you still go to hell. Three sins? Hell. Fifty sins? Hell.

    Doesn't sound like there is much incentive to stop sinning once you have started!

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  5. That's why the Catholics always pushed for confession and extracted a price for absolution....

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