The Making Of An Economist

by Arjo Klamer, David Colander

This book focuses on the graduate education of a small group of economists--those at elite schools. It is intended for three audiences: aspiring economists, economists, and the lay public. The book reports conversations with MIT, Harvard, Chicago, and Columbia students.

Genres: Economics

234 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Arjo Klamer is professor of the Economics of Art and Culture at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and holds the world's only chair in the field of cultural economics. Prior to that and after acquiring his PhD at Duke University, he taught for many years at several universities in the US, including Wellesley College and George Washington University.

In 1984, he attracted a great deal of attention with his Conversations with Economists. In his latest book, Speaking of Economics (Routledge, 2007), he pursues themes that emerged from that book. He has collaborated with Deirdre McCloskey to promote the rhetorical perspective on economics. The Economic Conversation, a textbook forthcoming in 2008 (Palgrave)and co-authored with McCloskey and Stephen Ziliak employs a groundbreaking "open-method" approach to teaching first-year micro- and macroeconomics.

His current research focuses on the cultural dimension of economic life and the values of art. He is member of the board of various cultural organisations and chairman of the board of trustees of "Het grafisch lyceum" te Rotterdam. He is actively involved in public debates in the Netherlands and is founding director of a new university, Academia Vitae in Deventer.

Reviews

[Antonio K.]

Bleak, decently researched (although limiting the interviews to four ivy league universities undermined some of the points Klamer and Colander made). I think the point made by Colander at the very end is well-put, and still applicable now: that the economic discipline has to some extent painted itself into a corner, where graduate school invariably has to be heavily empirical to compensate for a limited undergraduate emphasis on quantitative skills, but that undergraduate courses can't be too math-heavy because they're really catering to a bunch of business majors, which is in turn what generates much of the demand for economists in academia. If anything, the ills Klamer and Colander diagnose in their book with how economics is taught seem to have only gotten worse in the 40 years since it was published, with an increasing emphasis placed on mathematical rigor, and less on the humanist aspect of economics.

One interesting takeaway from the interviews, however, is that a lot of what the students discuss (i.e. moving away from abstract theory, and more towards practical policy implications), seems to have come true to some extent. I think the interviews at MIT in particular hint at a generation of economists who moved in the opposite direction (i.e. focusing more on practical causal and policy questions, applying RCTs, etc.).

Also complete aside, but it was nice to note that however bad I might feel about my career prospects in economics, at least I'm not a grad student in 1987 who has decided their focus will be the economics of the Soviet Union. Although at this rate maybe I won't be laughing quite so hard in a couple years.

[audrey]

Returning to this review after I (eventually) finish the 2007 Redux. Obviously outdated because it was written over 30 years ago, but it gives me a good feel of what has changed, what hasn't changed ...

[Caroline]

As someone trying to figure out whether graduate school in economics is for her, this was quite a useful book. The authors present an unflinching view of graduate economics education from the point of view of the students in the programs.

Though the study itself was done in the early 80s, I think a lot of the findings are still relevant today, particularly the focus on the highly theoretical and the importance that schools place on a student's ability to conduct original research.

This book has given me a much better idea of what graduate work in economics entails. There is also a follow-up study by Colander conducted in the early 2000s that would be useful to read as well. I'll be tackling that next.

[Brandon Minster]

Really useful for someone contemplating a PhD in economics; useless to anyone else. As I'm in the first group, I liked this book.

[Juan]

I really enjoyed this book, it was fun and easy to read. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the sociology of economics or in getting a PhD in economics.