What I am reading

Two of my favorite young macroeconomists (and former students) have a new essay on Identification in Macroeconomics.

More on the Economics of Healthcare

Back in July, I wrote a NY Times column about the economics of healthcare. Yesterday, my friend John Cochrane posted a lengthy response. I won't take the time to reply to all of John's points, but like everything John writes, his post is provocative and thoughtful. So I would encourage people to read it and decide for themselves.

John is certainly correct when he speculates about my motivation in writing the column:

It sounded like a good column idea, "I'll just run down the econ 101 list of potential problems with health care and insurance and do my job as an economic educator." 

I have always thought of my job as first and foremost being an economics educator, and my Times column is just one outlet.

I wrote this particular column around the same time I was writing about the economics of healthcare in a longer piece, which is designed to be an optional chapter for users of my favorite textbook. You can read the longer piece here. 

Still #1

Harvard undergrads show their wisdom in course selection.

How to Get People to Get Along

Click here to read my column in Sunday's New York Times.

A Reading List

Every few years, I teach (in addition to ec 10) a freshman seminar for about a dozen students. The seminar is essentially a book group for students who are taking introductory economics concurrently or who have advanced placement credit in economics.  Here is a list of this year's books:

1. The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner 
2. On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill
3. Capitalism and Freedom, by Milton Friedman
4. Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff, by Arthur Okun
5. The Economics of Inequality, by Thomas Piketty
6. Fair Play, by Steven Landsburg
7. Finance and the Good Society, by Robert Shiller
8. Scarcity, by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir
9. The Moral Economy, by Samuel Bowles
10. The Myth of the Rational Voter, by Bryan Caplan

What I did last night

Lady Gaga performed at Fenway Park yesterday (and the day before). Apparently, she is the first woman ever to headline an event at Fenway. It was a great concert.

Good people watching before the concert started. Ran into a few former ec 10 students.