KU News Release

KU professor to discuss, sign copies of ‘Inside the Economist’s Mind’

LAWRENCE — William A. Barnett, a Charles W. Oswald Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas, will present a free, public lecture and discussion at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.

The focus of the program is “Inside the Economist’s Mind: Conversations with Eminent Economists,” a book co-edited by Barnett and Nobel Laureate Paul A. Samuelson. A book signing in the Traditions Lounge in the union will follow the program. Samuelson, a professor emeritus of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will not attend the book signing but has provided signed book plates for the event.

The presentation will be moderated by Kansas Public Radio broadcaster Kaye McIntyre and will be simulcast to the KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park.

“Inside the Economist’s Mind” is a collection of 16 interviews with premier economists, including eight recipients of the Nobel Prize, conducted by their colleagues and friends in the field. Based on a long-running project initiated by Barnett as editor of the journal Macroeconomic Dynamics, the book includes introductions by its editors, an essay by prominent economic historian E. Roy Weintraub and 75 black and white photos. Each interview in the book is preceded by a short biographical sketch of the subject, written by the interviewer.

The book has been available in the United States for only three months, but it has already been translated into Korean, Chinese, Portuguese and Russian, and is receiving international praise. Excerpts from reviews and endorsements are online. The book also has its own blog.

Barnett is a leading researcher in macroeconomics and econometrics. He has authored more than 130 articles in professional journals and authored or edited 17 books. Barnett is on both lists of potential Nobel Prize winners in economics, one based on long-term publication rates and one based on long-term citations rates.

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