28
votes
How Should We Deal with Homework Questions?
I think a sensible requirement on homework questions (or questions that look like homework questions) is that the asker show what they have tried and demonstrates some minimal level of effort to ...
- 16.6k
20
votes
Should we be a high-voting site?
I believe we should follow the advice of Scott Morrison: vote early, vote often. This is a way to express which questions are on- or off-topic, and the site needs high rep users.
It's worth explicitly ...
- 8,002
15
votes
Is this site only for "expert-level questions"?
Just my thoughts:
I think the point is that a stack exchange site can easily lower it's expertness (if that is a word) but it is much harder to raise it.
During private beta we are time and ...
- 1,428
15
votes
It's Identity-Crisis time
Three years ago, September 18 2013 I posted a question in Area 51 exploring whether a 2nd attempt to launch an economics.se seemed to have a chance to succeed. It wasn't a site proposal proper, just ...
- 31.9k
14
votes
Is finance under our domain?
I think that some finance has to be part of economics, but not every finance question should be on topic.
Questions about specific mathematical techniques (e.g. how do I price XX option?) in finance ...
- 16.6k
14
votes
Are software questions on-topic?
I think a useful thought exercise is to ask yourself: in my ultimate dream world, would I be better-off getting help from an economist, a statistician, a mathematician, or a computer programmer? It ...
- 16.6k
13
votes
What do experts expect to get out of this SE site?
About me: junior academic faculty; microeconomist.
As an asker of questions, I envisage the following being useful (in decreasing order of usefulness):
Help on specific technical points. E.g. "I ...
- 16.6k
13
votes
Is asking about comments on some new paper off topic?
I think this is fine as long as a working paper is publicly available online (such as though NBER or SSRN) and it is written in the form suitable to this website. That is, it must be a question that ...
- 9,127
12
votes
How technical must the questions be?
During the private beta. the rules are slightly different to during the public beta. And no, absolutely no Econ-101 style questions during the private beta. They can wait until the beta is well ...
- 8,002
12
votes
We need more PHDs/Professionals on this site/why are we not getting them
As economists they understand a number of facts:
There are network effects: being on the site as a professional economist is more valuable when other professional economists are here,
But being a ...
- 16.6k
11
votes
Handy Hints for Committing to the Beta
Edit your stack exchange drop down to include the new economics beta at the top so you remember it every time you navigate between stacks. By default the list is sorted by stacks with your highest ...
- 103
11
votes
How Should We Deal with Homework Questions?
During the private beta, we need to be ruthless: close and delete them on sight.
Later, we can form a policy, as the site takes shape when it moves into public beta. Personally, I prefer the physics....
- 8,002
11
votes
What do experts expect to get out of this SE site?
I am an Assistant Professor of Economics in a department that is somewhat distant from the centres of economics research. I hope that this site will deliver the same value as tea-time in a good ...
- 1,125
11
votes
Who would you like to see as a mod?
To start the ball rolling, I think Ubiquitous has been making significant contributions both in the main site and meta and clearly investing time and energy in the site.
https://economics....
- 1,428
11
votes
Answering your own question. Perverse incentives?
Self answering is fine and should be encouraged. But questions have to be clear and on-topic by themselves. If there's a problem with self answering it's that the questions can often be unclear, or ...
- 616
11
votes
Accepted
Mathematical Economics/Tag Abuse
It is always appropriate to edit posts to remove tags, if you think that the tag is misused.
If you don't have enough reputation, your edit will have to be peer reviewed anyways, so there's backup to ...
- 10.4k
11
votes
Accepted
Questions of “poor taste”
On the Ancestry:
I agree the question's reference to the ethnic group was eyebrow raising (In fact I am partially through my grandmother part of the ethnic group that was referred to in the post so ...
1muflon1Mod
- 42.3k
10
votes
Are "practical" questions about economic systems "on-topic" here?
I think such questions are very important because it is precisely the answers to these which are time-consuming to find in books or journals and where having direct access to other experts through a ...
- 1,125
10
votes
What do experts expect to get out of this SE site?
I am a graduate student nearing the end of my dissertation. I strongly agree with @Ubiquitous' points. In addition, I'm hoping to see (and ask/answer) the following types of questions, organized by ...
- 1,048
10
votes
What level are we aiming for, now we are in public beta?
I agree with the approach of @Ubiquitous' answer (if I have understand it correctly): our policy should be determined in terms of the content that will be generated and will remain on the site.
...
- 31.9k
10
votes
Accepted
Should we be so quick in voting to close question from new users?
To my eyes, putting bad questions on hold early, protects the site from the phenomenon where bad questions get answers, and the incentive for the OP to improve the question is lost (and we are ...
- 31.9k
10
votes
Accepted
Might basic finance questions be on-topic?
Finance is on topic on this site. There's even a tag for it (finance). The only caveat is that the answer that you will get will be coming from an economics perspective. There is plenty of common ...
- 9,127
10
votes
Accepted
What kind of math/stat questions allowed?
This is a difficult question—which is why the physicists have wrestled with it so much. I would tend to be inclusive because it would be better to have overlap between two SE sites than to have gaps ...
- 16.6k
10
votes
Econ.SE Potential Moderator Election -- Community Interest Check
Please leave an answer if you'd be willing to run for a moderator position, should we decide to run an election.
I would be willing to run if there was an election.
If desired, please leave an ...
1muflon1Mod
- 42.3k
9
votes
The usefulness of very broad tags - macroeconomics and microeconomics
I think they are worth keeping.
Even though they are broad, Macro and Micro are very much part of the usual branching of economics. I think not having them as tags would be confusing.
They can be ...
- 840
9
votes
Is this site only for "expert-level questions"?
Well, what constitutes an "expert-level question"? Clearly, that definition is a bit of a moving target.
The beautiful thing about most major Stack sites is that you can show up with any level of ...
- 243
9
votes
Should we ask for MathJax to use escaped dollar signs as delimiters?
I think we should keep using the dollar sign. As common as it is in economics, I believe it is not that common when discussing economic models. Much more common is to use mathematics without the ...
- 840
9
votes
What level are we aiming for, now we are in public beta?
I am still forming an opinion on this, but right now I see a lot of very basic homework questions that even a mediocre undergraduate should have no problem handling. Honestly, I don't think this is ...
- 16.6k
9
votes
Are mathematical game-theoretic questions considered on-topic at EC.SE?
Yes. I think this is a good place to ask these sort of questions. Math Overflow might be good for the more technical details of a model but I think that in terms of model development, those sorts of ...
- 3,721
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