Next-Day Podcast Transcript: Interview with Dr. N. Greg Mankiw of Harvard University

Advanced transcript of podcast interview

Scott Cunningham (00:00:47):

Welcome to episode two of season four of the Mixtape with Scott. I'm the host Scott Cunningham, a professor at Baylor University in the economics department. This is a podcast devoted to the personal stories of living economists and using those stories or hoping that those stories will over time form a oral history of the profession last 50 years. Anyway, this week's guest is someone that many of you know really well, probably through many different experiences. This is Greg Mankiw, the Robert Beren, Professor of Economics at Harvard. Many of you know him for his work in macroeconomics, but even more of you probably this is true know of him because of his extremely popular book, Principles of Economics, Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, as well as his intermediate level textbook Macroeconomics. These books have collectively sold about 5 million copies in the United States, or at least in the English speaking parts of the world, and then probably another 5 million outside in translations.

As I tell him in the thing, it's probably the case that not only have a lot of us learned economics from Greg Mankiw, but a lot of us also, and I think this is probably true, learned about teaching economics from Greg Mankiw. It's a book that I think many of us were given as graduate students to teach undergraduates, or it was the book we selected when we got our first jobs and taught that big micro or that big macro class. And so it was really wonderful to get to talk to him, to get to hear his story. I don't spoil anything, but this was a lot of fun and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do. If you like it, share it with your students. This might be a fun one to share with your students, but I think it's fun even just listening to yourself. Thanks a lot. Alright, this is such an honor. I think we've met maybe one time, but I probably remember it better than you do. This is Dr. Greg Mankiw from Harvard University. Greg, thanks so much for being on the podcast.

N. Greg Mankiw (00:03:37):

It's nice to be with you, Scott,

Scott Cunningham (00:03:39):

For the sake of the listener, I already said your name, but could you tell us the long title and who pays your paycheck?

N. Greg Mankiw (00:03:46):

Oh yeah. I'm the Robert M. Beren, Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Scott Cunningham (00:03:52):

Okay, great. Great. Not Robert Barro. Robert Baren.

N. Greg Mankiw (00:03:56):

No, Baren. Baren.

Scott Cunningham (00:03:59):

That would be awkward to have your colleagues care. Right. Okay. This is an icebreaker. What's a vacation that you've gone on in your life that looking back, you still think about from time to time, whether it was a long time ago, resent whether it was a good vacation or a bad one?