Ep. 1: "An ambassador of the economics profession"

Anyone who has ever taken Econ 101 will likely be familiar with our guest Gregory Mankiw.  The Harvard professor’s Principles of Economics is in its ninth edition and is perhaps the most widely used textbook in introductory courses throughout the country. Now, in an essay published in the Journal of Economic Literature, Mankiw reflects on some of the big questions he’s confronted during the three decades since his career as a textbook author began.  He says that textbook authors, especially introductory ones, are like “ambassadors” for the profession. They should strive to present the relevant issues in economics fairly, doing their best to keep their biases in check, even if they’re not always successful. The AEA's Chris Fleisher and Tyler Smith spoke with Mankiw in March via Skype, when he was at home working on the 11th edition of his intermediate macroeconomics textbook amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Theme music by Sound of Picture.