The Rich Get Richer and The Smart Get Smarter

James Heckman, the University of Chicago Economist, won his Nobel for his work on econometric techniques to estimate various possible influences of wages. Over the last few years he has turned his focus to explaining the difference in skills and wages based on a worker’s education. Generally, he’s finding that skill gaps that exist at ages as young as 3 years old explain most of the difference. He describes his recent work over at Voxeu

To further complicate the problem those with low skills and income are not able to provide the environment to have their 5 year olds have the same level of skills as high skill and income 5 year olds. So the skill differences remain and it is harder to catch up.

Heckman is becoming a stronger advocate for pre-kindergarten education for disadvantage children. In terms of Presidential candidates Obama starts his education platform with a discussion of Zero to 5 year olds education. McCain discusses head start a policy aimed at 3-4 year olds in his early education policy, which Heckman suggests may be too late.

An Economist's Take on the Potomac Primary

After leaving Iowa in 2002, I thought my potential impact on primaries was over. Then when I was in Wisconsin, Kerry dealt Dean the knock out blow in 2004. Now the primaries have come to the Potomac. While, my vote might not have the impact of the average Grinnell College student. I still like giving who I’m going to vote for some thought. I have a tough time voting for John McCain who seems to still believe in the Laffer Curve “Tax cuts, starting with Kennedy, as we all know, increase revenues.” via Greg Mankiw, Havard Economist and former Romney advisor. Also Greg Mankiw gave Obama a gold star for his answer on cap in trade in a debate

So for this economist it comes down to Obama and Clinton. However, deciding on economic belief it is hard to support one over the other. As Brad DeLong put it when comparing the two “But what policy differences there are are insufficient to push anybody toward one rather than the other.” DeLong wound up voting for Obama based on his speaking abilities.

Perhaps deciding on the relative Economic policies of Obama and Clinton is not the right way to go. As Robert Frank, Cornell Economist, put it this way“some economists seem similarly baffled by the exuberance inspired by the Obama candidacy. But while homo economicus may be unresponsive to calls for sacrifice for the common good, the plain fact is that many people find such calls compelling.”

I'm just about ready to declare myself an Economsit for Obama (which has its own blog). I'm going to go to the Obama rally at University of Maryland to see if I agree with DeLong and Frank.
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note political opinions are those of solely of Seth Gitter. This entry used no State of Maryland resources.