I'm in the camp that is skeptical of emphasizing supply-side policies in the science and engineering labor market. I am - as in my macro (although that is coincidental) - a demand-side guy.
But here's one really good reason to invest more in science and engineering education... you get more superheros:
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'Investing' in science education (i.e. subsidizing it with taxes) is a really bad idea. You wind up with lots and lots of substandard scientists and general low morale within the field (because of depressed wages), instead of a more appropriate number of highly skilled people who enjoy and are good at what they do.
ReplyDeleteWell, it depends on what level of education you're talking about. This sort of effect becomes more of a problem with graduate education, but yes - this is precisely what I'm referring to. An excellent example is biology in the last two decades or so. Generally speaking, malfunctions in the market for scientific labor that might merit a policy response are on the demand side, not the supply side.
DeleteThere's a typo here. You accidentally put "good" in front of "reason".
ReplyDeleteHaving grown up during the height of Captain Planet's popularity, I can safely say that if we're considering the protagonists "superheros" then we've moved from simply lowering the "superhero" bar to firmly planting it flush against the ground.