Why is it good to be an Agricultural Economist?

What makes a good economist?

• I am asking practising economists to contribute to this one. What qualities make a good, solid, decent economist? What questions should she or he ask? When does an economist fail the profession? What are an economist's responsibilities? We all know Keynes's two classic answers. One is about a "master-economist" and the other is about an average  economist: “The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts .... He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher -- in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular, in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must be entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood, as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near to earth as a politician.” and "If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid." But Diane Coyle also put it well in the Tanner Lectures: "I would sum up the public responsibilities of the economist as follows: - be brave about your conclusions when they are firmly based on empirical research; - be modest about your conclusions otherwise, and own up to the limits of our knowledge and the nature of uncertainty; - do not hesitate to engage in the discussion of controversial subjects, especially if there are myths to be punctured, or if others are engaging in the abuse of evidence to support their prior views; - but if you are arguing on the basis of your political views rather than empirical research, or taking a view that supports a particular company or interest that has been funding your research, you have a duty to say so; - above all, communicate better with non-economists and the general public, because good economic policies will not be implemented if they do not have popular legitimacy, and the public understanding of economics is low." [http://www.bnc.ox.ac.uk/downloads/news/tanner_lecture_2012_text.pdf]

• Answer:

  These books and articles may help to understand how major economists think, and it will say who they are: Samuelson, http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Economists-Mind-Conversations-Eminent-ebook/dp/B000SBISFU/ Mankiw, http://www.nber.org/papers/w12349 Breit, http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Laureates-Twenty-three-Nobel-Economists-ebook/dp/B0081YEHY2/ Colander, http://www.amazon.com/Making-Economist-Redux-David-Colander-ebook/dp/B001SEQR0O/ A more general strategy is to take papers by recognized academic economists—those who teach and do research in major universities—and read their papers and textbooks. That's not the shortest answer to your question, but you can understand the issue better. Good luck in reading!