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When Gmu Economists Spar

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Jul 31 2007 12:00am EDT

When GMU Economists Spar

Do you ever wonder what faculty discussions are like within economics departments, when smart colleagues disagree? The wonderful thing about having half a department blogging is that sometimes these discussions spill over onto the web, for all to enjoy.

GMU's Robin Hanson is presently reading the new book by GMU's Tyler Cowen, Discover Your Inner Economist. And he's not particularly happy either with the way that he himself is represented, or with the way that Cowen approaches Hanson's speciality, the art of overcoming bias. Hanson is blogging his reactions to the book, and Cowen, in the comments, is responding:

I should make one further note about bias: I've had several reporters tell me that subjects of "portraits" are rarely happy with what is written about them, especially if it makes them sound interesting.

It's interesting that this kind of thing is making it onto public blogs, but that so far all the GMU economics bloggers have remained publicly silent on the news of Vernon Smith's departure, as well as that of Richard Florida. Intellectual disagreements are worthy blog fodder, it would seem; real departmental politics, on the other hand, maybe not so much.

Related: A personalized audio blog from Cowen, on the subject of economists as public intellectuals.

Update: The Hanson vs Cowen debate moves over to Marginal Revolution. Read the comments especially.

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