Subject: Ten Years & Beyond: Economists Answer NSF's Call
I just found out about this project by the NSF and its description (included
below): I looked over the list of 55 papers included on the AEA website and
was struck by its extraordinary distance from the concerns of the people on
this list serve and am moved to ask the people on this list whether they share
my impression and its implications for a comment on the current state of
thinking of the profession, even when thinking about the next generation
research -- it seems quite striking how large a gap there is. Am I right? Is
this just naivete on my part to be even asking this question?
We would like to acknowledge and thank the
National Science Foundation's Directorate for the Social, Behavioral
and Economic Sciences (NSF/SBE) for challenging economists and other
relevant research communities "to step outside of present demands and to
think boldly about future promises." Specifically, NSF/SBE invited
groups and individuals in August 2010 to write white papers that
describe grand challenge questions in their sciences that transcend
near-term funding cycles and are "likely to drive next generation
research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences." NSF/SBE
planned to use these white papers "to frame innovative research for the
year 2020 and beyond that enhances fundamental knowledge and benefits
society in many ways. This request is part of a process that will help
NSF/SBE make plans to support future research." At the conclusion of the
submission period on October 15, 2010, NSF/SBE had received 252 papers.
A compendium of abstracts to the 252 white papers and most of the full
texts of the white papers can be downloaded from the website
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/sbe_2020/.
We are disseminating the white papers of interest to economists
independent of the NSF because these papers offer a number of exciting
and at times provocative ideas about future research agendas in
economics that are worth further consideration by economists. These
papers could also generate other compelling ideas for infrastructure
projects, new methodologies and important research topics. Also some of
these papers are not available at the NSF website because they were not
submitted successfully by the deadline. We have placed 54 of the white
papers on our website http://www.aeaweb.org/econwhitepapers/ and have assembled
these white papers in this electronic publication.
David Barkin
Mexico
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
