Per Carville's catchphrase, many would say the economy is the real swayer of votes. Yet, aside from Mark Carney and Van der Bellen, why are there so few economists in politics?
What would it take for voters to be more supportive of academic politicians?
If "It's the economy, stupid", why are there so few economists in politics/heads of state?
byu/4dxn inAskEconomics
Posted by 4dxn
1 Comment
It’s actually simple economics. There are comparative advantages and tradeoffs. An economist who is excellent at producing high quality research may not have a comparative advantage in getting elected, crafting policy, negotiation, or a variety of other tasks politicians do.
In fact, the perfect example is that economists that *don’t produce high quality research* like Oren Cass, MMTers, etc are all extremely politically influential compared to someone like Emi Nakamura or Ed Glaeser.
Another piece of evidence for this is that it is readily apparent to me that economists are unfortunately able to convince laypeople of any economic consensus to begin with.
This is why economists tend to be staffers for politicians like the CEA, Fed, or FTC. However, it’s not entirely true that economists aren’t politically active. Many of them comment on policy and care deeply about it. IIRC a Uchicago economist ran for Chicago comptroller in 2024 (?) and did not get elected.