kitchen table math, the sequel: Professor of Economics Asks...

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Professor of Economics Asks...

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Self-identified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics. Wall Street Journal Opinion

Daniel Klein is a professor of economics at George Mason University. This op-ed is based on an article published in the May 2010 issue of the journal he edits, Econ Journal Watch, a project sponsored by the American Institute for Economic Research.

The article is available HERE

3 comments:

Crimson Wife said...

After reading the full article, I would have to say that I wasn't terribly impressed by the questions asked. For example, one of the questions was: "Free trade leads to unemployment." Are we talking about the general unemployment rate or are we talking about unemployment for particular individuals? Free trade may be good for the society as a whole but very bad for individuals who work in certain industries like manufacturing.

It isn't always as black-or-white as the author of the survey makes it out to be.

Independent George said...

Agreed. The selectivity of the questions almost guaranteed the result.

Catherine Johnson said...

well...be that as it may, Ed and I both passed....