Graduate Education GMU Style

As the entering class of 2008-2009 gets ready this summer to start in the PhD program, I figured I'd give a reading list for first-year students, and some advice on how to pursue their education to maximize the experience ---- assuming they want to head into academia.

First, let me explain what I did as a graduate student.  Take your core classes seriously.  Read everything on the syllabus and study harder than you ever have before.  To me the core classes are Micro and Macro, especially Micro.  Math Econ and Econometrics are techique courses and as such are necessary, but not sufficient courses in your education.  You need to master the material, but you don't have to "live" the material to be a good economist.  But you cannot be a good economist unless you live and breathe microeconomics.  In fact, I often tell students studying for core exams to remember that microeconomics is one true theory with many applications, while macroeconoics is no true theory with a variety of opinions.  In my day, the inside joke among the students was that we needed to know everything Armen Alchian wrote, think like Armen Alchian, and  just "be" Armen Alchian.  I would recommend that to any student hoping to be a good economist -- read and absorb everything you can from Armen Alchian.  So to skip a bit, that would be my first recommendation for students --- start with University Economics (or Exchange and Production) and then move to Economic Forces at Work, and if you are so inclined get the 2 volume set of Alchian's papers published by Liberty Fund, and spend your summer reading Alchian.  For macroeconmics, just know all the different arguments presented.  The Snowden and Vane book Modern Macroeconmics is probably the best survey, so read it.  Just wrap your head around the competing theories, and keep in mind that while there may be macroeconoimc problems, there are only microeconomic solutions.

I was fortunate as a student because I was able to pursue the core study of economics from a coordination problem perspective.  At that time (1984-1986), the GMU faculty in the core emphasized the UCLA approach to micro and macro --- Alchian and Leijonhufvud were key figures to study.  It didn't hurt that I actually think both of these thinkers were more or less correct in their key contributions as well.  So I studied their works intensely those first two years, as well as Varian, Silverberg, Chiang, and Kmenta and Thiel.

The other thing I did in graduate school was to take professors, not courses.  I learned comparative economics from Don Lavoie and Mike Alexeev; industrial organization from Tom DiLorenzo, Charles Rowley, and Jack High; microeconomics from Dwight Lee, Gordon Tullock, Jack High, and Mike Alexeev; public choice and political economy from James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Viktor Vanberg, and Bob Tollison; and history of thought from Kenneth Boulding, Karen Vaughn, and David Levy.  And, of course, Austrian economics from Don Lavoie, Jack High, Tom DiLorenzo, George Selgin, Don Boudreaux, and my fellow students at CSMP.  I also attended every IHS summer program I could, as well as FEE and Mises Institute functions.  Take professors who excite you, and pursue your passion.  Don't think courses substitute for knowledge acquisition.  Read, talk, live and breathe economcs constantly.

The last thing, start writing don't wait.  I published the very first paper I wrote in graduate school --- which I wrote a first draft of the summer of 1984.  Writing is research, don't fall into the trap of believing you need to read and read and read before putting ideas down on paper. Instead learn to read and write at the same time and constantly revise your work based on what you are learning.

Now lets move 25 years forward. What should the class of 2008-2009 read this summer?

Alchian
Alpha Chiang on math econ
Kennedy on econometrics

Cowen on Discovery Your Inner Economist (the best Wicksteedian work since Wicksteed)
Harford The Undercover Economist and the Logic of Life

Caldwell's Hayek's Challenge would also be a great read for the summer.

And if I was a graduate student, I would buy into what I just said for the first year: study micro and macro as if your life depends on knowing everything on the syllabus; go to all the seminars and see what professors you find approachable and knowledgable and take their courses; don't expect to learn a lot if professors spoon feed the material at the graduate level.  Simple and clear presentation is always desirable, but it might also be a signal that the presenter has stopped thinking seriously about economic questions.  Don't let clear and simple presentation style of some steer you away from the more open ended style of presentation of the most creative thinkers in the field.  In short, embrace the ambiguity of research rather than expect straightfoward presentations.  Graduate education is NOT undergraduate education on steriods --- if it is presented as such, run the other way if you want to be a serious researcher in the field.  Dick Wagner has the best story on this I have ever heard.  Wagner was sitting in Buchanan's class at UVA, and Buchanan gave the students the following assignment --- it is said that if a fly grew 9 times its size, it could no longer fly.  There is a problem of dimensionality.  Is this true for government as well?  For next class you need to turn in a 6 page essay on fiscal dimensionality.  Wagner raised his hand and said "Mr. Buchanan can you give us an idea of what you are looking for."  Buchanan responded "Mr. Wagner if I knew what I was looking for I wouldn't have asked you to write the assignment."  Embrace the challenge of learning how to think creatively and write clearly.

I had that same experience as Buchanan asked us to reflect on "the tale of the slave", "who is the individual in economic models?", and "the analytics of natural liberty", among others vexing questions he had us think about.  Embracing questioning and do not think that economics is about problem-solution.

And finally, find the brightest and those who love economics among your fellow students and become close friends, and pursue the graduate education and research journey together.  You will learn as much, if not more, from your fellow students as compared to your professors.  Choose wisely.

See you in August.

Comments

[PLW]

It's funny that you preview the first year of economics without mentioning MWG, Greene, or Fudenberg & Tirole, while in my program they contained about 80% of everything we did.

[Peter Twieg]

As one of the incoming first-year PhD students to GMU next fall, thank you for the advice! My reading list has been somewhat thin lately so I'll take these suggestions to heart.

[DPrychitko]

Pete wrote: "start with University Economics (or Exchange and Production)"

As per an earlier comment of mine, I introduced Pete to University Economics... in fact I gave him his copy.

Pete also wrote:
"I had that same experience as Buchanan asked us to reflect on "the tale of the slave", "who is the individual in economic models?", and "the analytics of natural liberty"..."

That analytics of natural liberty paper cost me my A grade in Buchanan's class. I should've listened to Mike Alexeev, who warned me not to criticize Buch's technical construction on the grounds of internal inconsistency.

[Daniel J. D'Amico]

http://austrianaddiction.rationalmind.net/archives/2007/03/books-i-wish-i.html

[Will Luther]

Thanks for the list and advice. I look forward to starting in the Fall at GMU.

[Peter Boettke]

Dear PLW,

You misunderstood my post, I didn't say these were books to preview the first year, they were books to read prior to graduate school to keep you excited about economics and give one an introductioin to the economic way of thinking and what a good economists does (Alchian), and to give a basic introduction to the tools and techniques required to "read" the work of other economists.

The first year set of classes at GMU in math econ, micro II, macro II, and econometrics will approximate more or less the curriculum you describe.

Pete

[Brian Hollar]

Great post! Here are a few lessons learned from my own experience in GMU's PhD program:

http://thinkingonthemargin.blogspot.com/2008/06/advice-to-incoming-phd-students.html

[Donald Lacombe]

I believe that stressing the intuition is crucial and that the mentioned books are a great start. As a Florida State PhD (2000) I learned both the Public Choice literature (via Randy Holcombe and Bruce Benson) and the econometrics. It turns out that to publish in good journals (such as Public Choice) a good foundation in econometric techniques is crucial, so the Kennedy recommendation (A Guide to Econometrics) is essential. I find it rare to read a paper that contains no econometrics in top journals (Peter Leeson's JPE piece non withstanding). My current research focuses on Bayesian methods in spatial econometrics...and not just because it's window dressing. The techniques are actually useful in explaining certain empirical regularities which are not estimable using OLS or other sampling theoretic ideas. My best advice would be for students to get a good background in many varied econometric techniques because you never know when knowing the marginal distributions of the multivariate normal density will come in handy...even in the empirical Public Choice literature.

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