I’m mid-way through editing some essays about how the way economics is taught in universities needs to change  – they will be out in September. The essays are a follow up to the conference (pdf) held at the Bank of England earlier this year, and there is also a working group looking at what practical steps are required in the UK. Anyway, one of the themes is the need for economics graduates to have the skill of communication to non-specialists, as there are no jobs outside the academic world that do not feature that as a central task.

The communication theme has also been on my mind as I prepare to give the Tanner Lectures (pdf) in Oxford on May 18th and 19th. The title is ‘The Public Responsibilities of the Economist’ and I’m finding that – as always – I need to explain that most economists do not do what everyone else thinks. People think economists go on the news/Twitter and pronounce confidently (albeit differently) about growth, austerity, the Euro etc, whereas although macroeconomics is an important function, most working economists are herbivores who spend their days looking at specific markets.

One of my conclusions is that economists need to take far more seriously the responsibility to communicate their subject – we are slow to do so, compared to scientists. As it happened, a column by Michael Burda about the Euro zone sent me today to David Hume’s [amazon_link id=”0865970564″ target=”_blank” ]Essays Moral, Political and Literary[/amazon_link] (online here). In his essay On Essay Writing, he divides people into two categories, the learned and the conversible – academics and the chattering classes. And he says:

“‘Tis with great Pleasure I observe, That Men of Letters, in this Age, have lost, in a great Measure, that Shyness and Bashfulness of Temper, which kept them at a Distance from Mankind; and, at the same Time, That Men of the World are proud of borrowing from Books their most agreeable Topics of Conversation. ‘Tis to be hop’d, that this League betwixt the learned and conversible Worlds, which is so happily begun, will be still farther improv’d to their mutual Advantage; and to that End, I know nothing more advantageous than such Essays as these with which I endeavour to entertain the Public. In this View, I cannot but consider myself as a Kind of Resident or Ambassador from the Dominions of Learning to those of Conversation; and shall think it my constant Duty to promote a good Correspondence betwixt these two States, which have so great a Dependence on each other. I shall give Intelligence to the Learned of whatever passes in Company, and shall endeavour to import into Company whatever Commodities I find in my native Country proper for their Use and Entertainment.”

[amazon_image id=”0865970564″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Essays – Moral, Political and Literary[/amazon_image]