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Bob Goldfarb reports: 
 
For some reason, both the Levy and Samuels e-mails about grad education arrived with no
texts attached. I have not had this problem with any of the other e-mails about this, from
Weintraub on.
 
Has anyone else had this problem? If so, can these two e-mails be resent? 
 
 
 
The posts came through to me as usual, but I am including the two messages below in case
others had this problem.  If you received blank emails (or have other technical problems
with the list), please email me and include the email program you use in your bug report.
Maybe I can figure out what's going on -- although, as an economist trained in the history
of economic thought in grad school, most would think that the odds are quite low. :-)
 
Also, while I'm here, I'll point out that you may see a hard return that's off here or
there or a weird character (e.g., "!") in the middle of words.  I do not see these things
when I distribute the message.  The list management software currently used by EH.net
(Listproc) is, ahem, not perfect.  They tell me that they are planning on switching
software soon . . .
 
Humberto Barreto 
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HES List Moderator 
 
 
Warren Samuels: 
Rosser's point is indeed different from mine, which was that doctoral students had to make
themselves employable.
 
 
Rosser's point concerns supplying the demand for historians of economic thought.  That
that demand--in doctoral programs--may be thin amongst faculty is a different matter.  At
MSU, with my retirement nearing in the mid-90s, it was obvious that the work done by Jeff
Biddle and me was appreciated.  We were both respected and treated well. Even my
heterodoxy seems to have been tolerated.  But the desire for the department to remain a
HET center was sufficiently thin so as to be non-existent; and, more important, different
groups wanted the slot for themselves.  So, no HET hiring was done.  Fortunately, Ross
Emmett was recently hired by James Madison College, a part of MSU catering to bright
social science undergraduates.  Still, the position of HET in the economics department
graduate program is much weakened--especially course offeringwise.  There is only so much
that Jeff can do by himself.
 
 
Warren 
 
 
David Levy: 
[Please email David Levy directly at [log in to unmask] for the materials he refers to at the
end of this email.  HB]
 
 
 
I think Barkley has put his finger on the issue. If we explain our actions by appeal to
our optimizing behavior then as economists we might wish to ask whether the private cost-
benefit calculations are the same as the social cost-benefits. Sandra Peart and I have a
paper coming out in the J of Economic Education claiming that there is a public goods
aspect to the past which, on the theory we teach our students, suggests that it will be
underprovided. The discomfort at the thought that we aren't truth seekers, that we are as
the same as the people we study, we think might help explain why there isn't a code of
ethics in econometrics/economics even though there are many such codes in statistics.
There was a panel on this problem at the Joint Statistical Meetings this August.
 
 
If anyone is interested I could send a PDF of the Peart-Levy piece or copies of the
various JSM papers which have references to ongoing discussions of professional ethics and
the like.
 
 
David 
 
 
 
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