Academies are becoming internationalized, says Paul Krugman.
Question: How has academia changed? Paul Krugman: It’s become much more internationalized. And actually I think there are . . . there are absolutely fewer Americans in my field than there used to be, because a lot of the bright kids who might have an aptitude for economics also have an aptitude for investment banking. And that kind of . . . you know I can’t blame them for doing that. More important, there’s actually been a thinning of the boundaries. It used to be that an Economics professor was an Economics professor, and it was actually quite rare for them to get involved in other things – at least on an extended basis. And now it’s become more or less expected if you’re, you know . . . if you’re talented or if you make a mark, that you’re going to in a way have a second life. You do your research probably for 10, 15 years to really become established. But after that, while you may continue to do research – we hope you will – to get involved in policy, to get involved in affairs is standard. I mean if you actually go back, my cohort in economics . . . There were . . . There were three guys who were sort of very . . . There were obviously a number of very good people, but people who tended to be talked about as having stuff that they were going to do. There was me. There was a guy named Larry Summers. And there was a guy named Jeff Sachs. And we all went to school together, actually. We all went to grad school together. And we’ve all had interesting second acts in our lives.