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
Guest Blogger
email: jonesgarett@gmail.com twitter:
GarettJones
______________________________________________________________________________________________
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.
I’m currently at
work on a book on these themes, with an expected publication date in 2014: The
working title is Hive
Mind: How your nation’s IQ matters so much more than your own.
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
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Selected
Academic Papers
IQ and National Productivity
(New
Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2011)
Abstract: A
recent line of research in economics and psychology hypothesizes that
differences in national average intelligence, proxied
by IQ tests, are important drivers of national economic outcomes. Cross-country
regressions, while showing a robust IQ-growth relationship, cannot fully test
this hypothesis. Thus, recent work explores the micro-foundations of the
IQ-productivity relationship. The well-identified psychological relationship
between IQ and patience implies higher savings rates and higher folk
theorem-driven institutional quality in high average IQ countries. Experiments
indicate that intelligence predicts greater pro-social behavior in public goods
and prisoner’s dilemma games, supporting the
hypothesis that high national average IQ causes higher institutional quality.
High average IQ countries also have higher savings intensity by a variety of
measures. Other possible IQ-productivity channels are discussed, as are
possible environmental causes of differences in national average IQ.
The O-Ring
Sector and the Foolproof Sector: An Explanation for Skill Externalities
(Journal
of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2013, lead article)
IQ and Entrepreneurship: International Evidence
(with R.W. Hafer, April 2012)
Abstract: National measures of
cognitive skill, including IQ tests, have received attention recently as a
possible driver of cross-country productivity differences. In a parallel literature, national measures
of entrepreneurial activity and pro-entrepreneurship policies have received
similar attention. This paper is the first
to demonstrate that higher national average IQ reliably predicts higher ratings
for the Acs-Szerb Global Entrepreneurship Development
Index (GEDI). Results hold after controlling for GDP, education levels,
inequality, broad economic freedom indices, and other factors. Microfounded
explanations for these results are considered.
Will the Intelligent Inherit the Earth? IQ and Time Preference in the
Global Economy
(February 2012)
Abstract: Social science research
has shown that intelligence is positively correlated with patience and frugality, while growth theory predicts that more patient
countries will save more. This implies that if nations differ in national
average IQ, countries with higher average cognitive skills will tend to hold a
greater share of the world’s tradable assets. I provide empirical evidence that
in today’s world, countries whose residents currently have the highest average
IQs have higher savings rates, higher ratios of net foreign assets to GDP, and
higher ratios of U.S. Treasuries to GDP. These nations tend to be in East Asia
and its offshoots. The relationship between national average IQ and net foreign
assets has strengthened since the end of Bretton Woods.
U.S. Troops and Foreign Economic Growth
(with Tim Kane, Defence and Peace Economics, 2012)
PDF Excel
with Readme Original
Kane Dataset on Troop Deployments, 1950-2003
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)
Cognitive
Ability and Technology Diffusion: An empirical test
(Economic Systems, 2012)
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)
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Current Teaching
Additional
materials available on Blackboard
Syllabus for Spring 2013 Principles of Macroeconomics
Syllabus for Spring 2013 M.A. Macroeconomics
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Past
Teaching
Syllabus for Fall 2012 Ph.D. Mathematics for Economists
Syllabus for Spring 2012 Principles of Macroeconomics
Syllabus for Spring 2012 M.A. Macroeconomics
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
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Additional
Writings and Presentations
Taxes Rational Workers Want: An Illustration of the Chamley-Judd
Theorem
(A 2-page discussion of the Redistribution
Impossibility Theorem, with links to two simple Excel simulations, March 2013)
Abstract: As a rule, rational
workers prefer to tax workers, not capitalists.
PDF Excel 1:
Paying for government Excel
2: The Impossibility of Redistribution
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)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
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.
