Government economist by day, blogger by night

Games he likes to play: How to define and measure the economy, innovation, national accounting, intellectual property, development economics and of course the history of economics.

Favourite Toy: Archives and data

Bed-time story: Robert Heilbrohner’s The Worldly Philosophers; Deirdre McCloskey’s Economical Writings

Imaginary Friends: John Maynard Keynes, Daniel Defoe, Charles Davenant, Edward Misselden, Vincent de Gournay, Arthur Young and Simon Kuznets.

If found, please return to London or www.mitrakahn.com where all his papers and vaccinations can be found.

By this expert

How God, Adam Smith, and the invisible hand changes over time

Article | Jan 5, 2012

So with a suitably provocative title I think we can declare 2012 open.

Backhouse and Bateman want Worldly Philosophers, not only dentists; not everyone agrees

Article | Nov 9, 2011

Professors Roger Backhouse and Brad Bateman wrote an op-ed for the New York Times a few days ago, arguing that “thanks to decades of academic training in the “dentistry” approach to economics, today’s Keynes or Friedman is nowhere to be found” - we have stopped thinking big they say.

A call to arms for Historians and Economists...

Article | Sep 2, 2011

The Marshall Lectures often provide thought provoking talks and one talk in particular spoke to me looking at the relationship between history and economics:

Who does original research?

Article | Jul 23, 2011

INET is all about thinking new things, and indeed academia is supposed to inspire great thoughts.