Interview by Michelle Nguyen and Stephanie Grayson
Transcription and editing by April Sperry
Commanding an audience of over 700 students per semester, Economics 10 is undoubtedly the largest class on Harvard’s campus. With a best-selling Economics textbook and a two-year stint as President George W. Bush’s Chairman of the Economic Advisers under his belt, Professor N. Gregory Mankiw is one of the most influential and well-known economists of our day.
But how many students actually know Professor Mankiw? In case you’re too intimidated to attend his office hours, The Voice took the liberty of sitting down with the man and the legend, himself, to ask him a few questions. Because, you know, no one wants to be that kid who raises his/her hand during lecture in Sanders Theater.
How has the teaching experience been for you?
I love teaching at Harvard in particular. It’s a great school with interesting and motivated students. It’s a very intellectual environment, so not only do I teach great students, but I have really smart colleagues to learn from. I usually take classes myself, either in the economics department or another department, so I’ll always be a student. Being a professor is kind of like a continuation of that, but you don’t pay tuition. They actually pay you a salary. It’s a wonderful lifestyle.
What classes have you taken in the past?
Two years ago, I took Stephen Pinker’s course on the human mind. I had never taken a psychology course in my life. I realized that having gotten through college was in fact a mistake and when I heard that Stephen Pinker was teaching an introductory psychology course here, I said, “this is perfect.” I had read some of his stuff and thought it was terrific, so I sat in on the lectures and I learned a lot.
You also worked in the Bush Administration. What is the difference between working there and working here?
It was wonderful for me to take a two-year break from Harvard. I’ve been at Harvard for a long time, and it’s nice to have a change of pace once in a while. So I went down and worked for George Bush from 2003 to 2005. It’s a very different environment, obviously, working in the White House and working in academia.
For one, it’s much more stressful. There’s always the media watching everything that the White House does. You have much more control over your own time in academia; the nice thing about being an academic is that you have a lot of autonomy. You teach classes when you want to teach them; you do the research you want to do; you accept the student invitations you want to accept; you write the articles you want to write. There’s a lot of freedom being a Harvard professor, whereas working for the President is a full-time job. You’re working for a boss in a way that you don’t really when you’re a professor, and you’re constantly furthering his agenda.
For me, the most exciting thing about the two years was how much I learned. The nature of being a professor is that you like learning new stuff. Working in the White House, you get to see how it works in the process, but you’re also forced to think about economic issues that wouldn’t have crossed your desk in a normal academic setting.
Have you recently or do you plan to teach a smaller class?
Last year and the year before, I taught a freshman seminar. I didn’t have time this year, but next year I’ll increase my teaching load, and I would be delighted to teach a freshman seminar again.
The economics department has gotten a lot of criticisms for the lack of student-faculty interaction. Do you think it’s fair?
To some degree, I think it is fair, actually. I think the problem is, essentially, that you have a very high student-faculty ratio. I don’t know the exact numbers, but our student-faculty ratio is roughly twice the university average. There are really only two ways to reduce the student-faculty ratio, and that’s either sending students away, which we don’t like, or hiring more faculty, which is our first choice, and we can’t do that unless the Dean uses his authority to hire more.
Why do you think that so many students at Harvard are interested in economics?
I think that economics is a wonderful combination of things. On the one hand, it’s a new field, something that you haven’t really studied in high school, so it has a novelty factor. It’s analytic, so if you have an analytic frame of mind, it appeals to you. It’s about the world and social phenomena, so it’s very practical, and it’s a pretty good preparation for lots of different careers, whether it’s business, or law, or even medicine now with health policy. So it’s a very good starting point for many different career paths, as well as being intellectually exciting.
Do you identify as a conservative?
I consider myself to be a classical liberal, like John Stuart Mill. Some people call that conservative, but I’m not sure that’s the best way to describe it.
There was a post on HarvardFML that said you liked Bad Romance by Lady Gaga and that you played it in class. Is that true?
I think I mentioned it on the blog. I do like Lady Gaga and I have some of her songs on my iPod.
A few one-liner questions for Professor Mankiw
Princeton or Harvard?
Princeton.
CS50 or Literature and Sexuality?
CS50.
Worst thing about Harvard?
The traffic during rush hour coming in from Wellesley. No, I take it back. The worst thing about Harvard is the weather in the winter.
Best thing about Harvard
Students.
The Voice or The Crimson?
Well, The Voice, of course.
Your role model?
Milton Friedman.
Describe the typical economics student in 3 words
Hard-working, earnest, and curious.
Photo by Heidi Lim.
