I asked some undergraduates in an advanced economics class for some feedback on my series of posts on Why Is Macro So Hard.
One, with an interest in journalism, suggested that economists have a:
Proclivity towards misprioritizing tact
Wow.
That pretty much sums up both how economists actually act and how we are viewed by other professionals, in just 4 word.
Just last week I had a personal experience with this. We were looking at February unemployment numbers from the CPS and I was challenging students to come up with possible explanations for differences across gender, race and education with regard to labor force participation, unemployment, etc. One student's explanation: blatant sexism and racism (she was a female minority). It made me wonder if my explanations of the data were less than tactful.
Posted by: Rodet | March 24, 2012 at 08:38 PM
Am I missing something ... or is this my econo-Asperger's coming through?
How were your explanations untactful when you were challenging them?
Posted by: Dave Tufte | March 25, 2012 at 12:30 AM
Ah, I offered my opinion off and on throughout the discussion. I was also referring to past instances where I discussed similar issues involving gender or race and may have come across as insensitive.
Posted by: Rodet | March 28, 2012 at 05:31 PM
Oh ... so this is a good thing ... you might have been untactful, and this opened your eyes to other explanations worthy of discussion.
Posted by: Dave Tufte | March 29, 2012 at 12:01 PM