I was at a family reunion this weekend and my wife’s first-cousin-once-removed asked me, So you’re an economist but you work on education programs in Africa: How does that work? To which I spouted some blather about a set of tools that can be applied across disciplines, blah blah blah. The real answer was best said by the personable and accomplished heath and education researcher Don Bundy:
Economists have all been to school, so they think they know everything about education. And they’ve all been to the doctor, so they think they know everything about health. And now they’ve all been to the therapist, so they think they know everything about mental health.*
I rode my bike this morning; I think I’ll be an environmental expert today.
* I heard Bundy say this at a seminar where he was a discussant on two papers by economists about HIV (one and two).
[…] Here’s a terrific quote from Don Bundy: Economists have all been to school, so they think they know everything about education. And they’ve all been to the doctor, so they think they know everything about health. And now they’ve all been to the therapist, so they think they know everything about mental health.. […]