I’d like to promise a more regular posting schedule here. On the other hand, seeing as I’m on the academic job market this fall (anybody want to hire a radical economist?) I really shouldn’t be blogging at all. So on balance we’ll probably just keep staggering along as usual.
But! In lieu of new posts, I really strongly recommend checking out the epic comment thread on Will Boisvert’s recent post on the lessons of Fukushima. It’s well over 100 comments, which while no big deal for real blogs, is off the charts here. But more importantly, they’re almost all serious & thoughtful, and number evidently come from people with real expertise in nuclear and/or alternative energy. Which just goes to show: If you bring data and logic to the conversation, people will respond in kind.
What is the job market for radical economists like?
Walt: It's not bad, if you like college teaching. If you have your heart set on being at a research university, the options are a lot narrower: It's basically UMass-Amherst, the New School, University of Missouri at Kansas City, American, University of Utah and maybe one or two others. On the whole, we do pretty well — there's not a lot of demand, but there is even less supply.
Are there teaching schools that specifically hire radical economists, or is it more that teaching schools are willing to hire economists regardless of orthodoxy/heterdoxy pedigree?
Some of both — places like Siena (in Albay), Bucknell, Franklinand Marshall, Sarah Lawrence,etc. specifcally look for heterodox economists. But beyond those 10-15 schools (and the half dozen heterodox research universities), lots of good liberal arts colleges are at least open to hiring radicals, in a way that places with PhD programs mostly are absolutely not.