Dec 15, 2009

Trade vs Macro

"Most people who work in international trade tend to lose the thread when the discussion turns to exchange rates and the balance of payments; as I’ve sometimes put it, the real trade people regard international macro as voodoo, while the international macro people regard real trade as boring and irrelevant"

This is Krugman writing about the genious of Paul Samuelson.

2 comments:

Pierre-Louis said...

doesn't this summarize hei students perfectly?

Maribou said...

On my side, I perfectly understand that PhDs are too engrossed in their own research that they lose sight of the fact that, at least for me, it is extremely useful to have all-rounded economists who might have some specialty but are able to discuss economics on all levels and not just stay in their own narrow spheres of interest…but im just writing this as an outsider and i guess it's hard at the PhD level with all the pressure to get involved in too many areas. But a mutual recognition of each other's fields of research and interests can only benefit both microists and macroists.