Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has commissioned and released the results of a survey of economists on a range of issues and candidates choice for the 2008 election. This was partly prompted by earlier statements by Clinton and McCain that neither candidate would not throw their lot in with economists and Adams decided to see what economists really thought:
We asked the economists which candidate for president would be best for the economy in the long run. Not surprisingly, 88 percent of Democratic economists think Democratic Sen. Barack Obama would be best, while 80 percent of Republican economists pick Republican Sen. John McCain.
Given that the survey is looking at experts in an academic field to gauge some sort of consensus, it is worthy posting. Just as if someone commissioned a survey on the Bush Doctrine with International Relations scholars. The results above are not overly surprising.
This is a very interesting survey. I think it nicely points out that even economists disagree on... well, economics.
On another note, it appears that, overall, this specific group of economists favor Obama in the upcoming election. This is not surprising because 48% of the respondents considered themselves Democrats while only 17% considered themselves Republicans. I think it's important to point out, however, that I think these results MAY only apply to academic economists. 65% of respondents were academics; I am curious if the results would change if the survey only included consultants/ business people/ et cetera. I wonder if there would be more Republicans.
Posted by: Julie VanDusky | September 16, 2008 at 03:28 PM
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342127
A survey done by the Economist shows that most professional economists overwhelmingly think Barack Obama has a better grasp of economics than John McCain.
Posted by: David Choi | October 03, 2008 at 12:59 PM