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Based on this question, I've decided to ask mine.

So, what would be the pros and cons of creating a EconOverflow?

I ask this, but I assume that most who would commit to the overflow, would abide firstly by the EconStack, so that the original project doesn't die. If I remember correctly, even our community took several (2 at least if I remember correctly) attempts to get started...

On best case scenario, overflow gets rolling. On the worst case, overflow will be the only to close.

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  • $\begingroup$ What standards of question quality/answers should there be? $\endgroup$
    – EconJohn Mod
    Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 16:49
  • $\begingroup$ Im for it but I just want to know what policies to apply. $\endgroup$
    – EconJohn Mod
    Commented Nov 9, 2017 at 16:50
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    $\begingroup$ Just to remind everyone, we should try using (and subscribing to) the academic-graduate tag. $\endgroup$
    – jmbejara
    Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 22:03
  • $\begingroup$ If EconOverflow shuts down, would the questions be migrated to EconSE? $\endgroup$
    – ahorn
    Commented May 19, 2018 at 17:55

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Im pretty open to the idea, however I don't think it makes sense to start an overflow site while this one is still in beta.

I'd say we wait till we get out of beta before we do that.

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    $\begingroup$ EconJohn, the beta label has lost it's usual meaning in the stackexchange community. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/257614/… That's why, we can stay indefinitely in a 'beta phase', without ever getting to open an overflow. $\endgroup$
    – An old man in the sea.
    Commented Nov 12, 2017 at 8:11
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    $\begingroup$ We're already in 1089 days of beta... $\endgroup$
    – An old man in the sea.
    Commented Nov 12, 2017 at 8:19
  • $\begingroup$ @Anoldmaninthesea. thats a valid opposition to this. But in terms of defining such a community we would require research level questions and policy design. $\endgroup$
    – EconJohn Mod
    Commented Nov 12, 2017 at 15:42
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    $\begingroup$ I would reserve EconOverflow to grad/research questions. $\endgroup$
    – An old man in the sea.
    Commented Nov 12, 2017 at 21:01
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An advantage of having EconOverflow SE would be that it would hopefully then become non-contentious that Economics SE could be for those who study, teach and apply economics and econometrics, with low-level questions accepted (subject to conditions such as effort shown). In other words, a structure similar to MathOverflow SE and Mathematics SE.

In response to the question in the comment by @EconJohn, I offer the following examples relating to a topic I happen to have studied:

Question suitable for Economics SE (but towards the high end) In the context of estimating the recreational value of a national park using the zonal travel cost method, what methods might be used to allow for heteroscedasticity in estimating the trip-generating function, and what are their respective pros and cons?

Question suitable for EconOverflow I am trying to estimate the recreational value of a national park and have zonal travel cost data for 15 zones. With so few data points, conventional methods for addressing heteroscedasticity in estimating the trip-generating function (eg weighted least squares with weightings estimated from the data, heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors) seem unlikely to work very well. An alternative approach proposed in Christensen & Price (1982) looks promising as its assumptions are independent of the number of zones. Which method might be expected to produce results with the least bias?

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    $\begingroup$ what questions would I ask on this econ overflow site which i would not ask on the regular Econ.SE? $\endgroup$
    – EconJohn Mod
    Commented Nov 12, 2017 at 21:13
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I'm all for it. I think getting it off the ground might be feasible. What one needs are a few experts, ideally known by name, in identifiable areas, so that one can quickly learn that one might get good answers on questions on, say, repeated games. This will attract research-oriented folks with interest in that subject and, over time, the base can broaden. MathOverflow started with a strong bias towards algebraic geometry but is fairly diverse now. It doesn't take too much to have a useful question-and-answer site. Ask a topologist was mostly one person, Henno Brandsma, giving expert answers to questions on (mostly) general topology.

Something that I think can be a serious problem is that the demarcation between academic economics and non-academic pontification on economics is much more controversial in economics than in less policy-related fields. What about politically slanted think-tank research? "Austrian" economics? Econophysics? I wouldn't ban any of these outright, but EconOverflow mustn't end up as a safe haven for cranks.

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I like the idea of an EconOverflow; it's what I wish EconSE was. (Or at least, I wish it were more like that.)

I struggle to see it taking off, unfortunately. Here are a few examples (that's one link per word) of questions I think would be appropriate for EO, but I just don't see how a different site would make them more likely to be answered. (This may also answer EconJohn's question in a comment to Adam Bailey's answer.)

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    $\begingroup$ @EconJohn Re your comment to Adam's answer. $\endgroup$
    – Theoretical Economist
    Commented Nov 13, 2017 at 12:41
  • $\begingroup$ So just a site for more advanced users?based on the questions you suggested, I say that the site policy for EO is of no "News story economics" question, but strictly geared for economic theory. $\endgroup$
    – EconJohn Mod
    Commented Nov 13, 2017 at 14:59
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    $\begingroup$ @EconJohn I think the relationship between EO and ESE should be the same as the relationship between MO and MSE. Putative questions on EO should involve questions that interest people doing (academic?) research in economics. I don’t want to say that “news stories” are definitely out, but the vast majority of them probably are. (I can probably imagine a “news story economics” question that would probably interest academics...) It probably shouldn’t be exclusively for theory either; the specific links are just due to my personal bias. Research-level empirical questions are good too. $\endgroup$
    – Theoretical Economist
    Commented Nov 13, 2017 at 16:00
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I wanted to revisit this topic. It would firstly address the layman vs graduate questions issue we have currently. Also, would make it easier to instead of ignore or close some very basic questions, we could move them around according to its level.

So... now that we have so many yays, where do we start from here? :)

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