Acamedic Debates Via Blog
Recently many economists have welcomed Dani Rodrik (pictured right) to the world of blogging. Rodrik, though a blogging novice, is a well respected economist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in the areas of development and international economics. I personally discovered Rodrik's blog through that of another Harvard economist, Greg Mankiw (pictured left). Mankiw has been blogging for about a year, and though he originally started blogging to communicate with his Ec 10 students (Harvard's introductory economics course) his blog is extraordinarily well subscribed and widely read outside of Harvard's walls.
Interesting enough, within days of Rodrik's first foray into the blogosphere Mankiw and Rodrik began engaging in what I would call a "vigorous" debate about the benefits of trade and the merits of various trade models. It is my feeling that public dialogue between economists can be incredibly illuminating and useful to arm-chair economists like myself who no longer have the pleasure of attending lectures along the Charles River. However there are risks to the economists themselves, and for the casual observer.
First of all, for the economists, engaging in debate in a casual nature through a blog is perhaps less convincing (though more timely) than engaging in debate via academic paper or opinion articles in the WSJ. The risk of sounding petty or of blithely denigrating the work of another economist may serve to alienate rather than encourage readers. The risks to the reader are perhaps more important. Because of the lack of thorough explanation and data/models in blog debates the result is a more accessible but less rigorous debate than is possible in an academic setting.
The good news is that Greg Mankiw seems unlikely to be lured into a more active debate with Rodrik or anyone else for that matter. After all, Mankiw uses his blog largely as a pedagogical tool, not as a means to pursue policy debate or profess personal opinion. Only time will tell how academic economists will utilize blogging in the future; it is my sincere hope that lively debate will not descend into churlish attacks via blog.
