American Economic Association

Symposium on Economists as Policy AdvocatesAuthor(s): Henry J. AaronSource: The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 59-60Published by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138300 .

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Journial of Economic Perspectives- Volume 6, Number 3-Summer 1992-Pages 59-60

Symposium on Economists as Policy Advocates

Henry J. Aaron

T hese comments by people who use economics but are not "doing economics" originated in a conversation between me and my colleague, Cliff Winston. We were commenting on the blissful unawareness among

leading academic economists of a particular piece of rather bad economics that was threatening to result in extremely costly, welfare-reducing legislation. While economists were busily engaged in important intellectual work of aca- demic interest, men and women of affairs were going about their business, dealing with matters on which economists could constructively comment, often without the contribution of economists.

What could economists do differently, Winston and I wondered, that might increase the usefulness of their activities to people who either were not trained in economics or did not have the time to keep up with journals and working papers or to attend conferences? The most useful approach, we both agreed, was not to elicit more economist-bashing screeds from people who had one brand or another of axe to grind. Better to invite people who knew economists, worked with them, and generally liked them to tell us what we might do differently to increase our effectiveness.

This brief symposium, with contributions from a legislator, a former presidential adviser, and a journalist, is the result. Some of the advice from these three knowledgeable users of what professional economists do is horta- tory; some is cautionary; and not all of it seems entirely consistent.

Congressman Lee Hamilton reminds economists that sophisticated jargon and convoluted technical shorthand learned in graduate school must be set aside if one wants to communicate with politicians (and most others, he might

* Henry J. Aaron is Director of Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.

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60 Journal of Economic Perspectives

have added); that the most helpful advice seems often to rest not on complex theory but on the sorts of economic principles taught to beginning undergrad- uates; that distribution matters; and that those tendering advice to elected officials should try to comprehend and treat sympathetically and respectfully the constraints by which those officials are bound.

Stuart Eizenstat directs his advice less to economists than to those who must sift economic advice for the president. He recounts the successes and failures in the formulation and use of economic advice during the administra- tion of President Carter. He does not emphasize distributional issues, as does Hamilton, but instead reminds economists that if they don't speak up for economic efficiency, few others are likely to do so. Like Hamilton, he stresses the need to translate into plain English the usually complex and sometimes counterintuitive insights that economists bring to the public policy debate.

Michael Weinstein emphasizes not the shortage but rather the abundance of advice from economists who are seeking popular outlets for their wares. He writes not just as a lay consumer of economic research, but as a professor turned journalist speaking to fellow economists as an ombudsman on behalf of intellectual honesty and detachment. While Hamilton and Eizenstat deplore an inadequate supply of clear and simple analyses of complex issues, Weinstein muses on the possibly excessive allocation of talents of the best economists to self-cancelling (and extremely well-paid) service as consultants for hire. While Weinstein does not even hint that economists ever say things they do not believe to be true or in the public interest, he warns against the selective use of evidence on behalf of deep-pocketed clients. Although he is too polite to come right out and say it, he is cautioning economists against intellectual corruption, caused either from being too well-paid for engaging in what my colleague, Alice Rivlin, once characterized as forensic economics, or from simply emerging from the academic cloister and into an impure world.

I believe that the difference in content and tone of these three pieces arises from the fact that the political world remains an' environment of people who must make decisions, while the world ofjournalism increasingly is populated by intellectuals with short attention spans, people who care intensely about ideas but who are not prepared to invest years on a handful of issues. Good journalists spend their days shopping in a cluttered academic marketplace, looking for both insight and conflict. Good politicians are looking for guides to correct votes and administrative decisions. The frustrations of Hamilton and Eizenstat and the concerns of Weinstein are almost certainly based on the same reality observed through different lenses.

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