Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Volume 3, Issue 3, September 2006

In This Issue:

Welcome to the September 2006 issue of Econ Journal Watch. EJW is a triannual peer-reviewed journal for scholarly commentary on academic economics.

Comments:

  • In the Journal of Economic Surveys, Jakob De Haan, Susanna Lundström, and Jan-Egbert Sturm reviewed the scholarly literature on economic growth and economic freedom. Robert Lawson comments on their review, notably on their objection to using the level of economic freedom in regression analyses of economic growth. De Haan and Sturm reply.
  • In a series of books and articles, Robert Frank has been arguing that higher taxes can help us to reduce the time and effort we waste in jockeying for relative position. Andrew Kashdan and Daniel Klein critically examine Frank’s argument. Robert Frank replies.
  • The secrets of Sweden: Andreas Bergh responds to Peter Lindert, whose book Growing Public suggested that the welfare state may be a free lunch, and pointed to Sweden to make the case. Lindert replies again and concludes the exchange.
  • The Journal of Economic Literature published a review (by Joseph Farrell, Jonathan Gruber, Gordon Hanson, and others) of the Economic Report of the President. The JEL authors pointed out omissions of the ERP. Daniel Klein and Michael Clark suggest that the omissions of the JEL list of ERP omissions reveal a lot about the JEL in A Little More Liberty.
  • There has been a heated controversy over measuring the money supply of the American colonies, with Ronald Michener and Robert Wright on one side and Farley Grubb on the other. Grubb provides the final contribution to the four-part exchange. Grubb's comments.

Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on rail transit? Ted Balaker and Cecilia Kim investigate.

Character Issues: The public economist: For several generations in Sweden, economists were giants in the public debate, and those giants discussed the existential tensions lying therein. Benny Carlson and Lars Jonung explore the minds, souls, and ideological characters of Knut Wicksell, Gustav Cassel, Eli Heckscher, Bertil Ohlin, and Gunnar Myrdal.

Correspondence: Meir Kohn remarks on the colonial money controversy by drawing parallels to the practices of other historical experiences.

Download and Print Entire September 2006 Issue (209 pages, 2.4 MB)