What I’m Reading
Mostly books. I may include papers/essays which I strongly recommend.
Currently
Economics Reading Group
Two close friends (both economics PhD students) and I are doing a weekly reading group over zoom. Below are the readings, and my notes on each:
Week of March 30
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I have always had a taste for intellectual history, or history of thought, and it's one reason I initiated this reading group. My friends and I all have an undergraduate education in economics, that is, a relatively high definition but low-level present day cross-section of economic theory and empirical methods. That cross-section gets one thinking like an economist, but leaves them somewhat unaware of why such ways of thinking came to dominate, for good or for bad, and which 'defunct economists' are to blame for our thinking.
There are many books in the history of economic thought, but most could be more aptly referred to as histories of political economy. That is, they present a history of the early economists, and their quarrels to erect the field. What is fewer and far between in the market are texts which provide insight on why we've come to favor particular models of endogenous technological growth, or even insight into early debates in economic theory at the turn of the 20th century. I wanted a book which included such topics, one that would help me understand why we use Cobb-Douglass, and what other paths the field could have taken had other ideas won out.
A deeper understanding of this history is intrinsically interesting, but it will also help me better my own thinking, as I learn more about how others in the past saw old problems in a new light and set down different ideas which reoriented the field. There is much to be gained, for the pursuit of the next revolution, in studying the numerous of the past.
The first 7 pages of this book merely provide some motivation, an outline of the structure of the book, and some tips for how it should be read. I am excited to continue it with my friends.
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Notes coming soon.
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Notes coming soon.
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Notes coming soon.
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Notes coming soon.