What's the Matter With Economists?

A new economics paper on the famous Hollywood Red Scare of 1947-1957 demonstrates some strengths and weaknesses of 21st Century economists.

From my new column in Taki’s Magazine:

Red Scare

Steve Sailer

July 24, 2024

… Academic economists used to write largely about dry topics like interest rates, but over the decades they’ve self-confidently shoved their way into more fun subjects that long were the province of now-woebegone academics like sociologists and cultural studies professors. …

The explosion in data availability has made the economics profession less theoretical and more empirical. …

Not surprisingly, back then, economists inclined toward the kind of theorizing you could do on a chalkboard. But now, economics grad students tend to be aces at finding and analyzing data.

For example, one of the most innovative economists of the 21st century is Harvard’s Raj Chetty, who has built amazing databases out of previously confidential numbers, such as your 1040 tax returns. Granted, Chetty is notably less than fecund in coming up with theoretical insights to explain his findings. But still, the data he has pulled together is extraordinary.

These changes in the field of economics have done a lot of good. But let me point out some tendencies of modern economists.

For one thing, the globalization of American economics has led to many of the most wizardly data analysts being Asians like Raj Chetty, Hui Ren, and Tan Tanyi Wang, clearly people with little intuitive feel for U.S. realities. America is a complicated place, so, despite all that is written about the USA, you can’t expect even 150-IQ foreigners to be adept at understanding it.

Read the whole column there.