Economist blogger you most want to see

I have never had as many responses to a post as I have had to this one. And the results are in.  The new economist blogger you most want to see is Joe Stiglitz, followed by Daron Acemoglu. Here is the full tabulation, as of this morning:

Following up on my promise, I have written to both Stiglitz and Acemoglu, encouraging them to start a blog. Here is the text of the e-mail to Stiglitz:

Dear Joe 

I hope you are well. 

I asked readers of my blog the other day which economist they would most like to see start a blog, promising that I would make a personal appeal to the winner of the poll. (See http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2007/09/a-good-day-for-.html.) Well, you may not be surprised to find that you topped the list, followed by Daron Acemoglu. So here is my appeal: please start a blog! There are a lot of people out there who want to hear more from you. It’s a great way to reach out to the interested public, and I have found it a very rewarding experience. 

And if you feel like sending in a short contribution to my blog, or even being a “guest blogger, I would be delighted of course.

Daron Acemoglu got this e-mail: 

Merhaba Daron 

Umarim iyisin. Gecen gun blogumda okuyucularima soyle bir soru sordum: en cok hangi ekonomistin bir blog baslatmasini isterdiniz? (http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2007/09/a-good-day-for-.html) En cok oyu alanla sahsen temasa gecip, ikna etmeye calisacagima dair de soz verdim. Siralamada en ustte Stiglitz ile sen ciktiniz. Ben de okuyucularin dileklerini sana iletiyorum: lutfen bir blog baslat! Senin dusuncelerini daha yakindan takip etmek isteyen kalabalik bir merakli kitlesi var. Onlara erisebilmek icin blog harika bir arac. 

Bu arada benim bloguma da bir-ki kelime birsey yollamak, ya da “guest blogger”lik yapmak istersen cok sevinirim tabi.

Here is my next question. Does Turkey have too many or too few great economists given its size and economic standing?

UPDATE: Daron Acemoglu responds by saying blogging "seems like a lot of work." He adds "I am already overcommitted, so it's a bit scary to take something else on." But he promises to send a "guest blog" at some point.

UPDATE2: Anya Stiglitz writes back to say that she and Joe have been on the road in Ethiopia and without regular e-mail access. Apparently, Stiglitz has been doing a bit of blogging on the NYTimes website to cover for Nick Kristoff. 

Comments

[Hafiz]

I really hope Acemoglu would blog in English.

[Cho]

I can't wait for Daron to start blogging....

On your question - I don't think you can have too many economists!!! There are positive spillovers all around...sometimes negatives too....oh well may be I don't care as long as Turkey produces the likes of Acemoglu!!!

[Cho]

Dani,

I just want to add, I am glad some authors did not make it....we don't just need excellence...we need good communicators...the two that emerged may not be the best economists of all time...but are very good economists and very good communicators...at the end of the day for economics to be useful it has to be relevant...and that means it has to be communicated properly...

Can I also take this opportunity, to ask you (or other readers) whether you can recommend a good paper that deals with the relative effectiveness of international credit restrictions versus international trade sanctions...

Thanks,

Cho

[hari]

Dani -

This was an experiment in popularity of good economists who can handle global political economy in perspective.

Joe will do for now. But we'll need a counterpart to his viewpoint/perspective on globalization! SOmeone like Bagwati would suffice.

Turkey already produced a lot of good economists (during my OECD time) in 1970-80s!

Look at current leaders - both Ph.D.'s from US universities.

[Aqdas Afzal (Pakistan)]

Merhaba Dani --

I think Turkey should be proud on producing A class economists: Dani Rodrik and Daron Acemoglu.

Moreover, there are others worth noting (Kemal Dervis, for instance).

I cannot really comment on how significant Turkey is to the rest of the world -- thats for the world to decide.However, Turkey-watchers, like myself in Pakistan, often try to find inspiration from the apparently successful transition from a Kemalist/Military dominated administration to an almost perfectly consolidated democracy.

Another thing that people like myself admire Turkey for is the way the mosque and the state has been kept separate uptill now. Nonetheless, this will create some challenges in the future especially w.r.t. to AK party's continuation in office.

One hopes that the AK party will be able to transform itself into a genuine European-style conservative party (CDU in Germany, for instance).

Question:
Why is it that both the famous economists from Turkey do not have a Turkic/Islamic background?

I ask this in a very Freakanomics-style tradition. Is it the case the minorities feel a heavier burden to prove themselves (I have no other agendas behind asking this question).

[jack sparrow]

I'm sorry to say if some of the readers are not aware both J.K. Galbraith and John Maynard Keynes are dead. So unless Professor Rodrik has some special connections with the dead I don't think anyone is going to hear from either of them ;)

[jack sparrow]

My apologies Joan Robinson is also dead. If there is anyone else I missed who has also departed from planet earth please let let me know.

[paine]

noseferatu is undead

[Ben]

FYI to everyone,

To get a peek at what a Stiglitz "blog" may look like ... he's going to be a guest commentator on the IHT's Managing Globalization blog at http://blogs.iht.com/tribtalk/business/globalization/?p=544

Is this a "spring training" for a full time blog? As of this post, he is still accepting questions.

[David]

After attended some gender courses i can find the one thing that is sad about this request list.

(and of course that Assar Lindbeck didnt win)

[Barkley Rosser]

jack sparrow,

J.K. Galbraith is not dead. Well, John Kenneth Galbraith is dead, and it may well be that those requesting "J.K. Galbraith" are thinking of him (and he only died quite recently, much more recently than Keynes or Joan Robinson).

However, his son, James K. Galbraith (hence also a "J.K. Galbraith") is alive and well and a very articulate progressive economist who occasionally shows up in the blogosphere, including on TPM in last year's contretemps over "hip heterodoxy," although I do not think he runs a regular blog.

All of which reminds me that I really think journals should not insist on people being identified in References by only their initials, although this is something that some publishers (including Elsevier, who publishes the journal I edit) have imported from the hard sciences. Why? Because there are pairs of individuals who share initials but different names who publish in the same areas of the same fields. I offer as examples in economics:

John Kenneth Galbraith
James Kenneth Galbraith

Robert E. Baldwin
Richard E. Baldwin

Anatoal Rapaport
Amnon Rapaport

Robert Gordon
Roger (or is it Richard?) Gordon

[Said Salih KAYMAKCI]

To Aqdas from Pakistan,
i am studying Economics in a Turkish university. WE are 19 students in Economics Honors programme in which i have 3 Jewish and 2 Armenian friends. At the beginning of this term we were offered to choose between two paths, one is Mathematics and Economics which is for the students who are hoping for a career in academic economics and the other one is Economics and Management which is a more market oriented field. 2 Armenian friends of mine choose the academic path and while my jewish friends found the market more appealing. For the Armenian friends you may be right ,all they want is to get an acceptance from a US university and go never to return with a one way ticket. However the same does not appply to Jewish students. They make their internships in Turkey and looking for a career here. Considering the persecution of the Armenians in Turkey and the stigma's against them my Armenian friends behaviour is understandable. As for the Jewish friends they haven't been subjected to the same hardships except for a short period in the World War 2 era when one party dictatorship was ruling and imposed extra-taxes on the minorities and even sent them to the labour camps when they default on their payments. interesting though in the recent elections Armenians voted for the governing AK party which you think aim to undermine the secular tenets of the system while the Jews choose Republican People's Party which claims the secular Republic is under threat. As for the new constitution proposal of the AK party it is being written by a group of very secular prominent academics and in which the compulsory religion classes in the high schools propesed to be electives. You think Turkey's transition '' from a Kemalist/Military dominated administration to an almost perfectly consolidated democracy'' is complete. i doubt it is the case while the 1982 constitution which was written and accepted under military rule after the 1980 coup, is still in place. i think we need a civil constitution first before claiming to be a democracy.

[Aqdas Afzal (Pakistan)]

Said --

Thanks for the clarification. Its interesting to note how different minorities in Turkey have gone with different political parties. An interesting case study for a student of Ethnic Politics.

Jack --

I know Albert Hirschmann is not with us any longer. However, I thought, in a hypothetical situation reading his comments like "Exit, Voice and Loyalty" and "Possiblism" would surely be interesting.

[Manuel]

As far as I (& Wikipedia) know, Albert O. Hirschman is alive. He is 92 years old, as P. Samuelson. I have no idea of his health status.

[Ali Sohail (pakistan)]

Aqdas Afzal(Pakistan):
Democracy as a phrase or an ideology?
You advocate the dream of a philosophy which is flexible, progressive, deep and rich in its true form yet succumb to its nature for a given set of conditions implying that it can only materialize if so and so leads to so and so, I believe we are today at the height of our historical democractic power and that under a Dictatorial regime! Pakistan has a unique structure of democracy, if only we are open to see!

We have a case specific, fastmoving, unique regime such as the "musharraf' govt in Pakistan, which although a dictotarial setup on first glance, the policy approach, the trickle down mechanism, accountability, openess, freedom of right, thought, life, expression has never been as closer to being as democratic(so-called system) as it is today in Pakistan.

Uncontrolled, Unprecendented freedom of the Press, Judiciary. industry, Economic Policy, Social policy or any other such fascet! The socialist call him an oppresive leader becoz they donot not agree with the fishermen, privatization,liberalisation issue(another agenda rather than a real cause).

It is only the foreign policy, specifically given the role of Pakistan in the war on terror that depicts a dictator look like. But hey, maybe that is a blessing in disguise! Can u really see the corrupt, fluffed, low self esteemeed feudal now tured political agenda driven leaders (agenda for self or a segment not country) tackle the sensitivity pakistan is going through in this day and age especially with regard to the pressures from the west. At this point it is necessary for an armed, sane, rational man to run and tackle such parallel issues.
Has history not taught us any lessons?

What is democracy in a country where less than 50% of the voting population votes. In addition, from the ones who do, only 30% vote on their free will(for their desired candidates).

Maybe if the media rather than agendafying against the establishment, comes together to expose and filter the existing political models in our country we may be able to achieve something professional, progressive and honest from the party spectrum! for example, name me one public policy, economic policy debate by any party or counter co propositons by any political leader on public tv?

Interms of the state and religion: the state will always have a reflection on religion, maybe not ina day or 2, but it always will unfold in the longrun. For starters the point was well made in the work and further development of the writings of Emile durkheim.

[JAMES A HAUER]

Fact: this is a 'religious war' - the elements of good and evil are not even debated -- we're worrying about the color of the living room rug as termites are eating the entire foundation!

[Aqdas Afzal (Pakistan)]

Apologies to All --

I checked. Hirschmann is still with us. I think I might be suffering from sensory overload:) Mea Culpa!

[idlehands]

Frankly, Acemoglu's research webpage is updated more frequently than a lot of blogs

[R. Richard Schweitzer]

There can be especial contributions from Daron Acemoglu derived from his work cited by Douglas North (see, NBER Working Paper 12795)

[Gabriel]

Why don't you ask Amartya Sen, professor Rodrik?! He receive 9 votes!! I think both Stiglitz and Acemoglu will not start a blog...

[DVD Life]

Who is Robert E. Baldwin?