Website www.russroberts.info Name Russ Roberts | Role Economist | |
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Influences Gary BeckerFriedrich HayekMilton Friedman Books The Invisible Heart: An, The Price of Everything, Zeus (Profiles in Greek, Athena (Profiles in Greek, Profiles in Greek & Roman M |
Russ roberts why keynesians always get it wrong and most economists too
Russell David "Russ" Roberts (born September 19, 1954) is an economist and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is well known for communicating economic ideas in understandable terms as host of the EconTalk podcast.
Contents
- Russ roberts why keynesians always get it wrong and most economists too
- Russ roberts adam smith s surprising guide to happiness but not wealth
- Education
- Career
- Unconventional books about economics
- Policy positions
- Books
- Articles and papers
- References

Roberts categorizes himself as a proponent of classical economic liberalism. He has said, "I believe in limited government combined with personal responsibility. So I am something of a libertarian, but . . . that term comes with some baggage and some confusion."
Russ roberts adam smith s surprising guide to happiness but not wealth
Education
Roberts was awarded a B.A. in economics in 1975 from the University of North Carolina and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1981 for his thesis on the design of government transfer programs under the supervision of Gary Becker.
Career
Roberts has taught at George Mason University, Washington University in St. Louis (where he was the founding director of what is now the Center for Experiential Learning), the University of Rochester, Stanford University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a regular commentator on business and economics for National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and has written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Roberts also blogs at Cafe Hayek with Donald J. Boudreaux at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Unconventional books about economics
Roberts has written a number of books which seek to illustrate economic concepts in interesting and unusual ways.
In 2001 he published the novel The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance, which conveys economic ideas through conversations between two fictional teachers at an exclusive high school in Washington, D.C.: one is a market oriented economics instructor, and the other is an English teacher who wants governmental protections that curb the excesses of unrestrained capitalism.
In 2008, Roberts released another novel, The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity, which focuses on the experiences of Ramon Fernandez, a university student and star tennis player who, as a child, accompanied his mother to the U.S. after she fled from Fidel Castro's Cuba. Like The Invisible Heart, The Price of Everything uses conversations between its main characters to address economic concepts (in this case ideas such as the price system, spontaneous order and the possibility of price gauging in crisis situations).
In 2014 Roberts offered an uncommon perspective on Adam Smith, a very standard - even orthodox - subject in economics. Roberts' book, How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness did not discuss Smith's crucial 1776 work, The Wealth of Nations; it focused instead on Smith's much less well-known book first published in 1759, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. According to a book review published in the Financial Times, Roberts' take on Smith's earlier book dispels the popular notion that "Adam Smith was the original Gordon Gekko, insisting greed is good . . . . [I]t turns out that this view is a misconception – one that Russ Roberts seeks to redress . . . by showing how the grandfather of the dismal science can make you a better, happier and more fulfilled person."
Policy positions
Roberts has urged those who formulate public policy and the economists who advise them to be more skeptical of the findings of empirical studies, and he views ultra-specific claims by politicians that their promoted policies will produce a certain number of jobs or a certain amount of growth as inherently unreliable.