Garett Jones
BB&T
Professor for the Study of Capitalism
and
Associate
Professor
Center for Study of Public
Choice
Associate Editor
New Palgrave Dictionary
of Economics
Editorial Board
Member
Journal of Neuroscience,
Psychology, and Economics
email: jonesgarett@gmail.com twitter: GarettJones
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As a
macroeconomist, I investigate both long-term economic growth and short-term
business cycles. My current research explores why IQ and other cognitive
skills appear to matter more for nations than for individuals.
For example: A
two standard deviation rise in an individual person’s IQ predicts only about a
30% increase in her wage. But the same rise in a country’s average IQ
score predicts a 700% increase in the average wage in that country. I
want to understand why IQ appears to have such a large social multiplier.
The story is much
the same for math and science scores: A person’s individual score predicts
little about how she’ll do in the job market, but the richest and
fastest-growing countries in the world tend to do much better on math and
science tests. If the IQ multiplier is even half as large as it appears
to be, then health, nutrition, and immigration policies in developing countries
should be targeted at raising the average intelligence of the world’s poorest
nations.
An even more
important implication of my research is that low-skilled
immigrants should be allowed to work in the world’s richest countries:
Low-skilled immigrants have little or no net effect on the wages of the
citizens of rich countries, but their lives massively improve when they are
allowed to work in these countries.
In the past, I’ve
worked on Capitol Hill and I’ve studied the monetary transmission
mechanism. I speak on policy topics regularly in the media and in
the
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Selected
Academic Papers
U.S. Troops and Foreign Economic Growth
(with Tim Kane, Defence and Peace Economics, 2012)
The Bond Market Wins
(Econ Journal Watch, 2012)
Human Capital in the Creation of Social Capital: Evidence from
Diplomatic Parking Tickets
(with John Nye, 2011)
Link Media Coverage in
WSJ, Real
Time Economics
National IQ and National Productivity: The Hive Mind Across
Asia
(Asian Development Review, 2011)
Patience, Cognitive Skill, and Coordination in the Repeated Stag Hunt
(with al-Ubaydli and Weel,
December 2010)
Speed Bankruptcy: A Firewall to Future Crises
(Published in Journal of Applied Corporate
Finance, Summer 2010)
IQ in the Utility Function: Cognitive skills, time preference, and
cross-country differences in savings rates
(Presented at Canadian Economics Association
meetings, June 2010)
The O-Ring
Sector and the Foolproof Sector: An explanation for cross-country income
differences
(Presented at
American Economic Association meetings, January 2009)
Cognitive
Ability and Technology Diffusion: An empirical test
(forthcoming, Economic
Systems)
IQ in the
Production Function: Evidence from immigrant earnings
(Economic
Inquiry, 2010)
Are Smarter Groups
More Cooperative? Evidence from repeated prisoners’ dilemma experiments,
1959-2003
(Published in Journal
of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2008)
Dynamic IS
Curves With and Without Money: An international comparison
(Published in Journal
of International Money and Finance, 2008)
On Money and
Output: Is money redundant?
(Published in Journal
of Monetary Economics, 2007)
Intelligence,
Education, and Economic Growth: A Bayesian averaging of classical estimates
(BACE) approach
(Published in Journal
of Economic Growth, March 2006)
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Current Teaching
Additional
materials available on Blackboard
Syllabus for Spring 2012
Principles of Macroeconomics
Syllabus for Spring 2012 M.A. Macroeconomics
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Past
Teaching
Syllabus for Graduate Public
Choice
Syllabus Fall 2011 M.A.
Mathematical Economics
Syllabus for Graduate
Monetary Economics
Syllabus for Ph.D.
Macroeconomics I
Syllabus for M.A.
Mathematical Economics
Syllabus for M.A.
Macroeconomics
Syllabus for M.A.
Economic Growth
Syllabus for M.A. Time
Series Econometrics
Syllabus for
Undergraduate Public Choice
Syllabus for Undergraduate
Economic Methodology
Syllabus for Principles of
Macroeconomics
Syllabus for Principles
of Macroeconomics
Syllabus Spring 2010 M.A.
Macroeconomics
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Additional
Writings and Presentations
Did
Stimulus Dollars Hire the Unemployed? and No Such Thing
as Shovel Ready
(Mercatus Center
Working Papers, with Daniel
Rothschild, 2011)
A Political Coase Theorem for the Intelligent
(Slide presentation at Konstanz University, 2011, and Public Choice World
Congress, 2012)
Becoming Open
and Able: Keys to Modern Productivity
(Slide presentation at University of the Philippines, July 2010)
The Economics
of Financial Crises
(Slide
presentation for
The Great
Recession
(Slide
presentation for
Economics of
the Geithner Plans
(Slide
presentation for the
Tax 101
(Slide
presentation for the
Artificial
Intelligence and Economic Growth: A few finger-exercises
(January 2009: A
response to a discussion between Robin Hanson and Eliezer
Yudkowsky at Overcoming Bias)
Imitate FDR’s Treasury
Secretary: Bankruptcy not Bailouts
(November 2008:
Published in U.S. Exchequer, pages 45-46)
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Miscellany
My media clippings,
catalogued by Mercatus.
My Twitter feed, GarettJones: All the economics I can fit into 140 characters.
An old photo of
me at the birthplace of a leading
driver of U.S. productivity.
A 2009 photo of my
brother Jerry and I backpacking in the Vogelsang section of
A macroeconomic revolution all in one photograph.
A photo of me in my office in Carow Hall.
A TV series you really ought to watch.
And another: The first sitcom inspired by public choice theory.
Another kind of spontaneous order.
