The Economic Way of Thinking

Blogometrics

My new, outstanding colleague in Econ, Frank Mixon, and his co-author, Kumal Upadhyaya, have a new paper titled "Blogometrics" that's worth a look. 

The authors find a strong correlation between research productivity and blog popularity.  There's also a nice narrative in the paper about some of the gems in the blogosphere, such as Marginal Revolution, Core Economics, and Environmental Economics. 

Unfortunately, the EWOT blog was still in its infant stages when the paper was developed, which means it does not appear in any of the results. 

A Useful Teaching Tool

Along with Dirk Mateer, my friends Bob Lawson and Josh Hall have developed a really neat teaching blog that uses music to help teach economics, From ABBA to Zepellin, Led.  Here’s their entry for one of my favorite songs, “Satisfaction” (The Rolling Stones).   

I’m going to have to bug them to get going and add another one of my favorites, Tom Petty’s “Refugee,” to their collection.  It seems like it'd be an obvious opportunity to talk about the importance of economic growth for individual well-being.