Stevenson and Wolfers: "Think Like an Economist" | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Stevenson and Wolfers: "Think Like an Economist"

August 21, 2020

Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers have launched a new podcast, called "Think Like an Economist."

In a series of tweets on August 19, @JustinWolfers explained:  

Econ isn’t that tough, but it's often misunderstood. Students often think it’s about math and graphs. Sure, math and graphs are helpful, but that’s only because they're telling a story.

We’re going to do that story-telling the old fashioned way, with words. In an Aussie accent.

Who’s our podcast for? You may not be an economist, but perhaps you’re econ-curious. Or econ-adjacent. Or sitting through an econ class and need help finding the intuition. Or teaching econ and wanna fire your students up. We love our field, and we want to make it accessible.

The deets: Each 15 minute episode will focus on what an econ instructor might cover in a typical lecture. This isn’t a torn-from-the-headlines pod, and it’s not a political soapbox. It’s really more of a course. An econ course. We’ll start with micro, then turn to macro.

We’ve got the first 4 episodes up already, covering the core principles of economics: The cost-benefit principle, the opportunity cost principle, the marginal principle, and the interdependence principle. Our goal isn’t to teach you these theories, it’s to teach you to *use* them

And over the next few weeks, we’ll add episodes on… <SURPRISE> Demand,  Supply, Equilibrium, Elasticity, Welfare Econ, Externalities, International Trade, and the rest of a solid foundation in micro. Then we’ll turn to macro, and the issues you read about in the news everyday.

You can find the podcasts on these channels:

iTunes

Spotify

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