Remember that subprime mortgage-induced liquidity crisis and the subsequent slight dip in the markets as a result of the bailout plan being rejected? Us too.
Prior to Monday’s rejection of the $700 billion plan, a letter was sent by economists around the country urging Congress not to adopt the plan set forth by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. This petition included 13 signatures of Columbia professors, all of whom work in the Business School and range from those holding named professorships to non-tenure track positions on the faculty.
From a cursory look into their after-school jobs, it seems as if, like most b-school professors, those who signed on appear to generally back the Wall St. establishment: Christopher Mayer is a real estate expert who moonlights with a hedge fund while Wei Shang-Jin is a vocal supporter of outsourcing and globalization. In the letter, they stressed a long-term solution that was fair to taxpayers and investors. The full list of Columbia professors is after the jump.
Michael Adler, Professor
David Beim, Professor of Professional Practice
Maria Guadalupe, Associate Professor
Andrew Hertzberg, Assistant Professor
Gailen Hite, Curriculum Specialist
Robert J. Hodrick, Nomura Professor of International Finance
Charles M. Jones, Professor
Christopher Mayer, Paul Milstein Professor of Real Estate, Senior Vice Dean
Tomasz Piskorski, Assistant Professor
Wei Shang-Jin, N. T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy
Morten Sorensen, Associate Professor
Maxim Ulrich, Assistant Professor
Daniel Wolfenzon, Professor
16 Comments
@... Still though, you have to give the man his due… He knows how to explain econ to people who are new in the subject… And while he’s not a “big-name-er” in the world of econ, he sure as hell is a big-name-er in the understanding of economics amongst the general student body… and, bwog, as a publication for this community could consider him in the league of big-name-ers for their purposes…
We’re talking about publishing an interview in BWOG, not an artice in the AER
@I hope this letter isn’t taken seriously, btw. The B-school is full of a few nuts, and Michael Adler, while entertaining, is not really much of an academic authority and is quite partisan.
@wait and how exactly is you description different from any other department at this university?
@Gulati? I don’t know whether he has a meaningful theory on anything. Or cares. One lecture for my Global Economy class he just talked about Don Imus and ended class an hour early. That’s fun and cool the first time, but aggravating and a waste of time. Why would you come to class anyway?
Anyway, yes, Hubbard would be great to hear from, as would someone like P-A Chiappori, who is a risk expert and general pimp extraordinaire (happens to be a citizen of Monaco.) Stiglitz, while silly at times, would be great to hear from, too bad he hasn’t touched moral hazard in years, probably….
@... So are econ students better than econ teachers?
@jeff sax is getting his nobel in 2025
@learn the lingo The departments of Arts & Sciences at Columbia are generally broken into three categories
1) Humanities
2) SOCIAL SCIENCES
3) Natural Sciences
You can find out more about the academic structure of the University here: http://www.wikicu.com/Departments_of_Instruction#Faculty_of_Arts_and_Sciences_.28844.2C_Est._1880.29
and here: http://www.wikicu.com/Faculty
Also, #2 – why are you dissing on Gulati? Because he doesnt have a Nobel? Sometimes the best and most insightful professors aren’t the “players”.
@thats the thing Sunil Gulati is NOT a professor at all. He´s a LECTURER. Not a professor. He doesn´t actually study econ, he just teaches it.
Learn the lingo.
@Alum “Also, #2 – why are you dissing on Gulati? Because he doesnt have a Nobel? Sometimes the best and most insightful professors aren’t the ‘players’.”
Comment #1 called Gulati a “big name-er”. All #2 did was to point out that Gulati isn’t a major figure in the field. He’s a popular teacher, but he doesn’t publish much (if at all), isn’t on the tenure track and doesn’t have a Ph.D. Pointing out that someone else gave Gulati undue credit is not dissing him.
@gulati??? Woodford >>>> Gulati
@#1 again: ok i forgot about the tendency of people on internet to prefer to argue about details rather than discuss the point at hand:
economics is a social science – the folks from bwog that I know seem to be fairly literarily inclined and I was just trying to express that I was happy that bwog was talking about the economic turmoil some more. and gulati is undeniably a popular professor (a big name on campus, if you will), not necessarily a massive authority in the economic world at large.
but anyway, I was hoping to hear these people’s perspectives on the lending crisis, bailout, etc. and I think bwog would be a good vehicle for it.
@well econ is kinda humanities, but not at all really in real econ. once you get to meatier subjects and especially grad school…econ classes often resemble math classes in some respects. also why not talk up some of the other amazing economists we have here aside from xavier and phelps? woodford for one never gets any recognition and as is a pimp!
@Actually Econ is more humanities than science…..or not?
@lol Sorry but Gulati is not a big namer. He is a lecturer (not even a professor). I think there are others in the Econ department better suited to this. Stiglitz won a nobel for the Economics of Asymmetric Information and then uses the Nobel cred as a pulpit to talk about issues tangentially related. People in the Econ world find him quite amusing. Can’t argue with Xavier and Phelps though.
@Alum Stiglitz won his Nobel for one particular area of research, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of his depth in others. More than almost any other economist alive today, he has made major contributions to multiple fields within the broader category of economics and finance. Winning a Nobel for one field did not erase his expertise in others.
@woah woah... wait a minute there bwog….
you speak *ahem*… econ? I thought you were all humanities folks
I think an interview w/ Prez Hubbard about what should be done is an obvious next step (as well as maybe some interviews w/ our own econ department’s big name-ers: Gulati, Xavier, Sachs, Stiglitz, Bhagwati, Phelps, etc.)
what say you, bwog? I mean these people probably won’t be as important as they are right now, for a very very long time