Economics’ public face has been revolutionized by the internet. In the past, economic issues were discussed in the corridors of academia and at major conferences. Occasionally the public would catch a glimpse of the discussion in the form of Op-Eds or books aimed at the general public, but most of the back-and-forth went on behind the scenes.
Not anymore. Economists have taken to blogging, and their debates now happen out in the open. By following the “econ blogosphere” you can get a front-row seat to watch top economists debate the issues of the day.
Some of the big sites to follow (in alphabetical order):
- Brad DeLong’s Grasping Reality…: Run by the loquacious economist from Berkely
- Chris Blattman: Run by a development economist from Yale
- The Conscience of a Liberal: Blog of Paul Krugman, possibly the most famous economist today.
- Economist’s View: A roundup of economics news, curated by Mark Thoma of the University of Oregon.
- Freakonomics: Set up by the authors of the hit books and applies economics to new domains
- Free Exchange: The Economist (magazine)’s blog, featuring a host of bloggers
- FT Alphaville: The Financial Times’ blog
- Greg Mankiw’s Blog: Our textbook author’s blog.
- Marginal Revolution: Run by Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowan of George Mason University, covers an enormous range of topics
- Noahpinion: Run by Noah Smith of Stony Brook CUNY
- The Monkey Cage: The Washington Post’s collective of political science bloggers
- Vox: Former Wonkblog head Ezra Klein’s new website to “explain the news.”
That should be enough to get you started, but if you want more, check out the top 200 influential Economics blogs.