Need to pick an economist - help!
 

I'm in a class where I can choose an economist to speak about and I want to make it interesting. A couple of people in my class have already done Steve Levitt and his book "Freakanomics." I wanted to do Tim Harford and his book "The Undercover Economist" but it's not here at the library.

I know there are some economics enthusiasts in OOT... please help

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Friedman and Keynes are safe bets.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

J. K. Galbraith

make sure to refer to his interview with Ali G often

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Paul Krugman is a topical choice w/ buttloads of available material.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

[ QUOTE ]
J. K. Galbraith

make sure to refer to his interview with Ali G often

[/ QUOTE ]

Shucks. The course name is "Galbraith, Friedman, and other economists" and right now we're on other economists.. I will look into Krugman. Thanks for the help so far.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Krugman is a good contemporary choice.

You could do Myron Scholes/Fischer Black/Robert Merton. They are responsible for the Options Pricing Model (used to price financial instruments, primarily options). Merton and Scholes won the 97 Nobel in Economics for this. However, they were also a part of Long Term Capital Management, a spectacular failure of a hedge fund. Very interesting story.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Even though he was not an economist by trade John Nash would be interesting to talk about. If you wanted to read a an econ book and talk about the author a bit my favorite econ prof had a book come out last spring in the same vain as Freakonomics (Harold Winter, Trade-Offs : An Introduction to Economic Reasoning and Social Issues).

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Would Adam Smith work or is he too philospohical?

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Malthus is good if you want to go old school.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

F.A Hayek

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Any particular perspective you're interested in?

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

paul samuelson, merton miller, franco modigliani, harry markowitz

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

David Ricardo.

One of the first real economists, no one knows much about him, yet he is very important. A lot of the later economists are difficult to talk about because their theories are rather technical, but Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage and the case for free trade are easy to talk about and you can keep a class fascinated for any amount of time on this topic alone.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Good suggestions given so far...another one I've had to tirelessly explain to non-econ people is Art Laffer, hero for popularizing the Laffer Curve and giving 1980's hack reporters ammunition against supply-side economics and the "Laugher Curve." He didn't invent the idea behind the curve, he just put it in a graph. He may not be a good choice if you want to explore depth of work or overall economic contribution, but if you think you can squeeze a paper out of the economic and political ramifications of the Laffer Curve, go for it. Good luck.

Laffer Curve article by Laffer

ScottieK

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

The best are the ones who wrote papers that are simple and intuitively appealing. George Akerlof comes to mind immediately.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

[ QUOTE ]
paul samuelson, merton miller, franco modigliani, harry markowitz

[/ QUOTE ]

paul samuelson is my great uncle (just thought i might throw that out there, your probably in awe of me)

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

[ QUOTE ]
The best are the ones who wrote papers that are simple and intuitively appealing. George Akerlof comes to mind immediately.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a really good idea. The Market For Lemons took years to get published as many journals thought it was too obvious, yet was one of the most seminal, widely-cited articles of the 20th century.

Nobel Prize-winner Amartya Sen with his groundbreaking work on poverty and development (sometimes working close to the boundaries with political theory) would be another good choice.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

To totally show up all those trendy Freakonomicsers:

Steven Landsburg - The Armchair Economist
OR
David Friedman - Hidden Order

Both did Freakonomics better than Levitt, a decade before. They're each more interesting thinkers than Levitt.

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

[ QUOTE ]
Paul Krugman is a topical choice w/ buttloads of available material.

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Dude, He is looking for an economist, not a [censored].

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

I'd go with Matthew Rabin.

He's a behavioral economist (in other words he incorporates psychology into economics) and writes interesting stuff.

here's a link to his homepage

here's a link to info on him on wikipedia

An easier option, which is also quite good would be to go for Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. They are actually psychologists that won the nobel prize in economics for their work in behavioral economics, most notably in prospect theory.

If you have any questions about the above, let me know.

Jared

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Ben Stein

Beuller? Beuller?.......

Re: Need to pick an economist - help!
 

Alan Greenspan would be a decent choice.

or are you not allowed to talk about practical economists, and only theoretical ones.

Gary Becker and Coase are two that are hugely important and interesting.

do you have to discuss their like, biographies, or work?

c