Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen (also George Mason University's Tyler Cowen BOpinon's Tyler Cowen, etc.) at Advisor Perspectives, December 30:
TikTok is now the most popular website in the world, by one measure, and as such its influence on how young people see and think about themselves is attracting ever more attention. I am an economist, so I would like to focus on a considerably more narrow subject: what TikTok’s videos say about how young people see and think about economics. The news — for my profession, not necessarily for TikTok — is not good.
For the purposes of this experiment, I typed “economics” into the TikTok search bar and simply watched what came up. Of course my feed was governed by the site’s algorithm, which is not transparent, but it is reasonable to assume that on average it guides users to videos that are engaged with, liked and widely shared.
The first video I saw was about the high pay of economics majors in the job market, relative to softer majors. The speaker has a strange British accent, and it is possible that he was deliberately trying to look and sound stupid. It has been liked more than 32,000 times. The next was a rant about the outrageous price of beer at sporting events. There is no obvious intelligence or analysis in the video. It has been liked almost 32,000 times.
I also saw a video called “Why I left economics,” in which a student who took an economics class at Brown explains how his professor taught about inequality but lived in a mansion with servants. He argues that economics as a subject distracts our attention from “what the **** we’re supposed to do.” The number of likes exceeds 258,000.
I watched a video of a woman loudly sighing in relief as a caption explains she has just dropped her economics class. Likes: more than 22,000. Then there was one mocking the idea of being an economics major, calling it another religion and suggesting the demand for economist friends is quite low. It had more than 34,000 likes.
It wasn’t all bad. There was a young woman who explained the sunk-cost fallacy: If you buy a movie ticket, start watching the movie and don’t like it, you just should leave. The money you spent on the ticket is a sunk cost and you won’t get it back. Her economics is impeccable, but — only 3,310 likes.
There was a video praising “post-growth economics,” arguing that wealth is not trickling down to lower earners, and that growth is inconsistent with environmental sustainability. The speaker is highly articulate, though much less optimistic about the benefits of growth than are most professional economists. Number of likes: more than 74,000.
A video called “Economics with dad” explained that inflation is high, in part, because supply chains have been disrupted. I am pleased to report the number of likes exceeds 331,000....
....MORE
Possibly related:
A Fine Whine: "Attacks on mainstream economics and reforming economics teaching"
Claret?
I usually like Professor Wren-Lewis' thinking but this piece points up the fact that there is an awful lot of navel-gazing going on in the econ academy.
From Mainly Macro:
Climateer Line of the Day: Why Do People Think Economists are Charlatans Edition
Economic Navel Gazing: Does Anyone Care What Economists Think About Anything Anymore?
Economists Fess Up
The Mamma of all Mea Culpas: The IMF Did Not Understand How Austerity Would Undercut Growth
Research Says Learning Economics Turns You Into A Liar
Robots Raise a Row(e) in Economics Land
Always remember, economics is not reality and the fact that economists use the tools of scientists (maths) does not make it a science. Or, as George E.P. Box said so much better:Basically the Best Economics Article of All Time
"...All models are wrong, but some are useful"
Hmmmm, I appear to have gotten a bit obsessive on the subject.
