This is my Rifle, This is my Gun

Nearing the end of two years in the neighbourhood of the political powerhouse of the world, I feel still virtually the same way I did when I first came. Although I can probably handle myself a little better now. (Speaking of handling I made a superb aloo curry and dal today. My flatmates' are all out Saturday-nighting over DC, and I have the kitchen to myself. I went a little rich with the aloo curry and put some sour cream in the end which made it a 11 on a 10 scale.)

What better to state all of this than in the words of Dan Hamermesh, perhaps the coolest economist I've seen:

In his presentation - which incidentally is pretty interesting to most non-economists I would believe; it's about what drives reputation in the economics world - someone brought up the point that some economists may not necessarily publish a great deal but still could be working with government/multi-lateral organizations/etc which would contribute to their salaries but may not enhance reputation.

Hamermesh was using salary as one measure of reputation - just one, so don't get all hot and bothered about this - which prompted the question. The idea being, I suppose, that salary is a noisy proxy for reputation.

Hamermesh's response: "I suppose that is true. Probably departments closer to cities will have more of such people. But then you also have to consider the "pull" factor - people choose to work in departments where they can get access to such institutions. "

(Now remember this is the University of Maryland, which is right next door to DC. You could see where he was going with this, but his punchline was beyond anything I'd expect.)

"It's probably true for most of you guys, isn't it? (Smiles) Spending your career sucking at the trough, as it were."

(Room breaks into laughter and scattered applause. It's fun to see academics behave like little children, because that's really what they are. Most of them anyway.)

Well, that pretty much sums it up. No more accurate description of existence here is needed.

Post Script: some other person brought up the idea that just being very active - going to seminars, writing a bunch of papers - could make you look like a productive economist, but may not necessarily improve reputation. So, using paper count as an explanatory variable for reputation doesn't really work then. Hamermesh responded with this little beauty:

"I suppose you could say if you wiggle your butt hard enough, someone will pinch it. Yes that's true."

(Roaring laughter).