Would Adam Smith be a Blogger?

by Emma Coleman Jordan

A question that surely comes to mind immediately for anyone who reads the voluminous outpouring of bloggopinion by influential academics is: Is blogging a waste of valuable time?  From The Economist we now have at least one set of arguments to answer that question.  The magazine tackles that issue in a recent article, “The Invisible Hand on the Keyboard: Economists’ Blogs” Here

The Economist examines the behavior of the ultimate pool of "rational" utility maximizers, elite academic economists.  We can assume that this subset of academics has internalized the lessons of Adam Smith's "invisible hand" and are therefore the most skilled at figuring out what is in their personal best interest.  So, their choices offer a natural experiment that provides useful data that helps us to figure out the answer to the question: why would highly regarded economists, such as Nobel prize winner Gary Becker and the founder of law and economics, Richard Posner, spend time writing for nothing?

The pros and cons of blogging, as calculated by leading bloggers on economic topics, are:

Reasons to Blog

• Amplifies intellectual influence

• Instantaneous pooling (correction) of ideas, opinions, facts, images and scholarship

• Natural extension of teaching function

• Reduces the barriers of access to the best minds

• Amplifies marketing of books, lectures, academic status

• Enhances the reputation of both the individual professor and the university itself

Reasons Not to Blog

• Loss of time for traditional publishing

• Loss of time available to earn consulting fees

• Reduces the competitive advantage of being a member of an elite school faculty

• Exposes flawed thinking to worldwide criticism, even ridicule

Take a look at the following for yourself. 

Selected Econobloggers Links

Becker-Posner, Univ. of Chicago  link
Brad DeLong , University of California, Berkeley  link
Greg Mankiw , Harvard  link

What do you think?  Your comments are welcome