Economics Blogs

There are two types of economics blogs that I tend to read. There are the Marginal Revolution and Freakonomics types, which tend to be a little on the quirky, playful side of things. "Let's use economics to see the world with new eyes!" kind of stuff. It's been five years, I guess, since Steve Dubner wrote his NYT piece on Steve Levitt, and since then, it seems like everyone is up to their eyeballs with that brand of economics. Superficially, it's just an extension of Becker's own research agenda, which sought to study nonmarket phenomenon (like crime, the family, marriage, education, fertility) with economic theory, which has proven to be a smashing success in terms of new insights and influence. Somewhat deeper, it's an emphasis on the scientific method, rigorous empiricism, and "clean identification" that is the common characteristic of almost all of applied microeconomics of the last fifteen years. Marginal Revolution is mostly Tyler Cowen offering up his own preferences for all of us to share, which is pure consumption for economists who absolutely love what he has to say (Alex Tabarrok less so if the comments are any guide).

The other type of economics blog I read, and more often it is taking a larger share of my time and interests, are the slightly more technical blogs. Or rather, the blogs that are actually about traditional economic problems and policy, that devote all of their time to policy discussion and analysis. And my favorite, of all these, is EconBrowser, the oddly named blog of James Hamilton and his co-blogger Menzie Chinn. They really only write about the state of the economy - economic growth, inflation, employment, business cycles, energy - and so if you don't find that particularly interesting, then you won't find the blog as interesting. But, Hamilton is extraordinarily gifted in terms of his ability to communicate clearly, to provide exceptional analysis, and to be a joy to read. So I highly recommend their blog.