<p>For the undergraduate econ major, how are the courses? Is the faculty extremely laissez-faire? I am a liberal, so I am afraid I might feel uncomfortable with my Keynesian views...</p>
<p>I’ve answered this once before, but to settle the issue, if you’re really that worried, just go look at the course catalog and the descriptions of the courses. <a href=“http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/pdf/ECON.pdf[/url]”>http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/pdf/ECON.pdf</a></p>
<p>Or you can even take a look at the syllabi for the courses, e.g. for the first course in the economics curriculum, Principles of Economic Analysis I, <a href=“http://home.uchicago.edu/~vlima/courses/econ200/spring01/econ200spr01syllabus.pdf[/url]”>http://home.uchicago.edu/~vlima/courses/econ200/spring01/econ200spr01syllabus.pdf</a></p>
<p>Do Keynesians disagree with scarcity, equilibrium, and multivariate calculus? If not, there’s nothing to be worried about.</p>
<p>You are 17 and so sure of your “Keynesian views” that you don’t care to be challenged about them? Why bother going to college? Just pick out a reading list of things that won’t upset you . . . .</p>
<p>Actually, you are going to have a hard time finding an Economics Department anywhere where left-liberalism is the norm, not the token exception. On the other hand, “laissez-faire” describes an economic position that is probably about 100 years out of date, if not 200. No one is “extremely laissez-faire”.</p>
<p>At Chicago, I think people pride themselves on being rigorous much more than on any kind of ideological purity. The local religion, especially in the Economics Department, is being willing to follow where your data and analysis take you, without preconceptions or politically-determined limits, and being willing to respond to criticism from any direction as long as it is based in careful analysis. If you want a little bit of the flavor of Chicago Economics, take a look at the Becker-Posner Blog. Gary Becker (one of Chicago’s Nobelists) and Richard Posner (essentially, the inventor of Law and Economics as a movement, and almost certainly the most influential conservative legal theorist of the past 50 years) no longer do a lot of teaching, but they have near-deity status at Chicago. There’s no question that politically both are solidly right-wing. There’s also no question that they have little tolerance for right-wing cant, and are constantly willing to re-examine their own ideas in light of new information or interesting comments from others. Also, that they believe in academic discourse that is based on respect for shared academic values, not shared political values. I believe that’s what Chicago Economics is like.</p>
<p>It’s not that I dont want my views challenged. But I dont want to spend 4 years having people scream at me for being “wrong”</p>
<p>thanks for the other info, though.</p>
<p>And to clarify, I’m no marxist radical. More a Joe Stiglitz type.</p>
<p>While I agree that the department’s primary interest is presenting a mathematically grounded, micro driven view of the world (which is a very useful way to approach the things at first), it seems a little bit short sighted. </p>
<p>The way macroeconomics in particular is presented is a tad bit too clean, particularly in the two intermediate courses which end up being the limit of most students exposure (macro electives are historically underrepresented). You can graduate with an economics degree from Chicago and have essentially zero academic exposure to most open economy (e.g. understanding the contours of central banking) and political-economy issues (e.g. some empirically driven exposure to globalization trends). Historically, this is where most of the hot button liberal issues arise. </p>
<p>Then again, these are far easier to pick up on your own by casual reading than industrial organization concepts or econometrics.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about the ideology at Chicago. I’ve been to Chicago for two summers-I took 2 undergrad econ courses because econ is my intended major-and there wasn’t any polarization because of different ideology. Chicago economists are more pragmatic, and adopt policies that “work,” or at least work in the long-run. They believe that the use of incentives are the best way to address the world’s economic problems.</p>