A US city hosting a big convention will enjoy a higher boost to incremental spending — holding the number of visitors and their average incomes fixed — if those visitors are auto dealers rather than economists.
Responses
© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
14%
7%
2%
0%
16%
49%
12%
Responses weighted by each expert's confidence
© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
5%
0%
13%
60%
22%
Participant |
University |
Vote |
Confidence |
Bio/Vote History |
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 Daron Acemoglu |
MIT | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Alberto Alesina |
Harvard | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Joseph Altonji |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Alan Auerbach |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Autor |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Not a lot of impulse spending among economists by my observation. You can charge them a lot for WiFi however.
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 Katherine Baicker |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Abhijit Banerjee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Marianne Bertrand |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Never been to their convention. My response assumes they spend less time than we do inside our hotel rooms interviewing job canditates.
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 Markus Brunnermeier |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Raj Chetty |
Harvard | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Judith Chevalier |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Economists spend all of their time in the hotel doing interviews.
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 Janet Currie |
Princeton | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 David Cutler |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Angus Deaton |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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I have a strong prior, but it is pure prejudice and there is a high probability of it being wrong.
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 Darrell Duffie |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Sorry -- I'm not familiar with the spending habits of auto dealers!
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 Aaron Edlin |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Although economists are known to economize and some think tipping as tourists irrational, in truth, who knows?
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 Barry Eichengreen |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Liran Einav |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Ray Fair |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Agree, except for Orley Ashenfelter's wine brigade.
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 Amy Finkelstein |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Pinelopi Goldberg |
Yale | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Austan Goolsbee |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Economists are known for parties and blowing money. The original AEA motto was 'Cras Ignorare' (FORGET TOMORROW)
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 Michael Greenstone |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Robert Hall |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Those dealers know how to have fun...
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 Oliver Hart |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Dealers have high-powered incentives. Winners may celebrate a lot and losers drown their sorrows. Low variance makes economists staid.
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 Bengt Holmström |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Caroline Hoxby |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Deep Q: By being dismal (scientists), do economists exert a negative gen eqm effect on the natives, thereby actually depressing consumption?
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 Hilary Hoynes |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Kenneth Judd |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Businessmen supposedly have larger spending accounts. According to one "survey", ladies of the evening leave town when economists arrive.
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 Steven Kaplan |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Anil Kashyap |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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we are lengendary cheap skates. this is why we can't hold the aea convention on a weekend in las veags -- we don't spend enough!
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 Pete Klenow |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
 Jonathan Levin |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Economists are famous cheapskates.
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 Eric Maskin |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 William Nordhaus |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Based on sample of experts (n=1)
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 Emmanuel Saez |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Larry Samuelson |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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We hate to be called the dismal science, but I fear we can be a dismal lot - or perhaps we work so hard there is no time to spend money.
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 José Scheinkman |
Columbia University | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Richard Schmalensee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Economists rarely try to impress each other with how much money they can spend. Auto dealers, by reputation, do this fairly often.
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 Carl Shapiro |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Robert Shimer |
University of Chicago | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Richard Thaler |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Only safe prediction is that those who make money via tips fear the AEA. Economists known to be bad tippers.
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 Christopher Udry |
Northwestern | Bio/Vote History | ||
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.. because, basically, we're boring.
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