Friday 8 February 2008

Economics made easy -- we hope

Gonzo economist Steven Levitt , 'Stevo' to his friends, has announced he's offering a $10K top prize for the best video presentation of economics concepts. [Hat tip Division of Labor.] Most economics lectures are not pretty, he says, and he wants to help change that.

If there were a prize given for the best economics lecture at the University of Chicago in a year, I know who would have won it last year. I brought in a very high-priced call girl to guest lecture at my undergraduate Economics of Crime class. The next day, I asked my students whether they liked the lecture. More than one-third of them said it was the single best lecture they had attended in their four years of college. I had to agree with them.

Max Borders has already made his entry, which you can see at YouTube.  It's better than it sounds -- a less off-putting title might be 'Why Central Planning Doesn't Work':

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