New Editors at Brookings

O.K., I’ll admit that I’ve done plenty of hand-wringing about the state of economics. And now I’m going to do something about it. This morning, Brookings announced that David Romer and I will be taking over as the new editors of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. We’ve got some pretty big shoes to fill — left empty by Larry Summers (who left to head the National Economic Council), Doug Elmendorf (who left to head the Congressional Budget Office), and my one-time coauthor and former C.E.A. chair, Greg Mankiw. David and I are also signing on as nonresident senior fellows.
The B.P.E.A. has played an enormously important role in linking academic and policy debates. In recent years, we’ve had papers from an astonishing array of the very best economists: Acemoglu, Akerlof, Barro, Caballero, Glaeser, Goldin, Hall, Johnson, Katz, Krueger, Krugman, Nordhaus, Rodrik, Shleifer, Sims, and Shiller all spring to mind, just from the last couple of years. We are looking forward to continuing that tradition, and the spring meeting is already shaping up to be a terrific program.
And the real bonus is that David Romer is one of the smartest guys I know, so it will be great fun to be working together. The best way to keep learning economics is to find opportunities to be the dumbest guy in a very smart room, and this is going to give me this opportunity in spades.
The full Brookings press release is here.