A lot of fuss is made over student evaluation of faculty teaching and there have been suggestions that these student evaluations have more importance in decisions about hiring, tenure and pay of professors. From my perspective, as one who is annually evaluated in this way, doing this would be a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing that I am "knowledgeable about course material"... would they expect an instructor to otherwise? But, I do have concerns when I think about the student who filled in the evaluation form to the left having any say in my employment and financial future, though I expect it would be favorable.

For the record, at no point in the course did we talk about planes, or my ability to fly one.

EconTalk - Show Review

From the show notes:

"Michele Boldrin of Washington University in St. Louis talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about intellectual property and Boldrin's book, co-written with David Levine, Against Intellectual Property. Boldrin argues that copyright and patent are used by the politically powerful to maintain monopoly profits. He argues that the incentive effects that have been used to justify copyright and patents are exaggerated--few examples from history suggest that the temporary and not-so-temporary monopoly power from copyright and patents were necessary to induce innovation. Boldrin reviews some of that evidence and talks about the nature of competition."

This is one of the better EconTalk shows of late. The concept is straightforward enough that most educated layman can grasp the ideas at hand, and the economic principles are explained in sufficient detail for even me. And, for a change, Roberts seemed less antagonistic towards his guest and more apt to let them talk. Which was nice.

EconTalk Itunes link
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