The conversation on how economists should improve communication with the general public is very important and interesting. Here are my two cents. 1/n
I agree that effort to improve is necessary.
In the early 2010s, I was at an NBER international finance & macro meeting, and a senior member of the group commented over coffee that 2/n
In the early 2010s, I was at an NBER international finance & macro meeting, and a senior member of the group commented over coffee that 2/n
we had surrendered wide communication of insights from macro (and trade) to @paulkrugman, we did not engage enough in conversation with audiences broader than our colleagues. 3/n
@paulkrugman I very much agreed with her, and it also because of that (and of being tired of reading garbage about economics and economists written by people who have no idea what they are talking about) 4/n
@paulkrugman that in 2015 I took the (for me) giant leap into modernity of signing up for a Twitter account, and I started trying to contribute to wider conversations by occasionally writing thoughts on various issues in more accessible fashion than I would for a journal submission. 5/n
@paulkrugman Admittedly, I have done that a lot less than I would have liked, but constraints and obligations are what they are. Much more importantly, I think the profession is not getting enough credit for many, very significant efforts that have been happening for quite some time. 6/n
@paulkrugman I am old enough to remember a time when all @cepr_org discussion papers had to include a non-technical summary. It’s no longer the case, and maybe that’s a mistake, 7/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org but the value of @voxeu in disseminating mostly non-technical summaries of many CEPR papers and other work by CEPR researchers cannot be underestimated. 8/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu As far as I know, editorial decisions imply that this non-technical dissemination is not provided for all CEPR discussion papers, so it may indeed be good to return to the old strategy of having all of them include a non-technical summary. 9/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs disseminates insights from research by NBER researchers in mostly non-technical terms through its Digest and Reporter. This is very valuable. As for CEPR Discussion Papers, it may be valuable to have all NBER Working Papers include a non-technical summary. 10/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs Many central banks are actively disseminating non-technical summaries of research through their blogs and Twitter efforts. These and websites like econofact.org are invaluable. 11/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs One hopes that the many publishers and journalists who have given plenty of space to the ideas of quacks of all types are paying attention. 12/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs But my concern now is for the pressure I see that *every output* economists produce should be written to be accessible to the general public—say, my parents, whose highest degree was a high school diploma. 13/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs It seems that we should strive to write *everything* so my parents should be able to read it. I reject that. 14/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs I value the diversity of outputs that my profession produces: the output for communication with the general public we are increasingly putting out there and the output for communication with colleagues that we write in our working papers and publish in specialized journals. 15/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs Again, I think it is very important that we engage in effort to communicate what we do as widely as each one of us can subject to her/his time and energy constraints. 16/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs But I also think expecting that the profession should write journal papers as if they were written for my mom and dad means going way too far, and it would be counterproductive. 17/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs By the way, have you ever tried reading an article in, say, Physical Review Letters or even Nature? How about this? nature.com/articles/s4158… 18/n
@paulkrugman @cepr_org @voxeu @nberpubs I propose a deal to my friends in physics, medicine, biology, etc.: When you write your journal articles so that I (forget about my mom and dad) can understand every word you use, I’ll do the same for you with my own. n/n
