It is no surprise that the academy can be a quagmire of jargon, groupthink, and outright opacity. While this critique is most often leveled against the humanities, the Whartons and Sloans and Kelloggs aren’t much better. Once you get past introductory economics, the average citizen knows fairly little about the scholarly debates taking place between today’s leading economists—debates that will have a profound impact on future economic policy. Luckily, two sites have parsed the imposing discussions about equilibrium systems and consumption functions to make the world of economics more accessible.
The IGM Economic Experts Panel is a survey that polls prominent economists from diverse backgrounds. Aimed at gauging trends in economic thought about a broad range of topics, the Panel asks questions covering topics that are both traditional—the auto and bank bailouts, Medicare and Medicaid, international trade—and nontraditional—the size of sugary beverages, student loans, drug policy, bitcoin, and more. To collect answers, “questions are emailed individually to the members of the panel, and each responds electronically at his or her convenience. Panelists may consult whatever resources they like before answering.”
The results are incredibly interesting and available online. You can spend plenty of time on the IGM Forum’s website looking at well-organized data and individual participants’ answers. Some interesting findings—most think rent control isn’t very good, believe CEO’s are overpaid, and favor reforming drug laws. Ands there’s plenty to digest here with the more prominent issues of the day—Obamacare, Sino–American trade, taxation in myriad forms.
Before you go straight to the Panel’s results, I’d recommend first stopping at www.whichfamouseconomistareyoumostsimilarto.com. The site, designed by Chris Said, a postdoc at the Center for Neural Science at NYU, allows you to answer the same questions put to the economists and see whose opinions you most closely mirror. While neither will help you win a Nobel, these sites shed a little more light on what’s happening inside the ivory tower.