The WSJ Real Time Economics blog has posted the letters for and against the health care reform bill winding through Congress. The most interesting thing about the lists of signatories is the geographical divide. It was so interesting, I did a fast tabulation (so, don’t quote me on it), and what one finds is that of the list in favor, only 2 of 41 economists are affiliated with institutions in the South (defined using the most restrictive definition in this Wikipedia page — so to be completely accurate, I haven’t used the actual Mason-Dixon line). Of the 127 signatories to the against letter, 40 are affiliated with institutions in the South, i.e., essentially 1/3 of the total. A list of affiliations is below:
For
| Brookings | Princeton |
| Harvard | Harvard |
| Brooking | UCLA |
| Brandeis | UCSF |
| Stanford | Chicago |
| Harvard | Princeton |
| Princeton | George Mason |
| Michigan | Chicago |
| Syracuse | Penn |
| Brookings | Princeton |
| Princeton* | Harvard |
| MIT | UC Berkeley |
| Boston | Dartmouth College |
| Stanford | Michigan |
| USC (Southern California) | Harvard |
| MIT | Chicago |
| Michigan | Emory |
| Urban Inst. | UC Berkeley |
| Michigan | Center for Budget and Policy Priorities |
| Harvard | Harvard |
| CUNY |
……….
Against
| AEI | Brigham Young |
| U. Mich, Flint | Clemson |
| Carnegie Mellon | Idaho |
| Memphis* | Univ. Texas – Arlington |
| Metropolitan State College, Denver | Wainwright and Co. |
| Virginia | Center for University Studies (Texas) |
| Colorado | Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy |
| Baylor | Colorado |
| Pacific Research Institute | Missouri Southern State |
| CSU, Northridge | Wake Forest |
| Robert Morris University | Ohio |
| Menlo College | Temple |
| Western Kentucky | Clemson |
| Hudson Institute | Delaware |
| Univ. Wisconsin -Milwaukee | Univ. Texas – Dallas |
| South Florida | California State University, Long Beach |
| Chapman | Institute for the Research on the Economics of Taxation |
| Alabama | George Mason |
| Odessa College (TX) | Univ. Missouri – KC |
| French, Wolf & Farr (Law Firm) | Kennesaw |
| American Action Forum | Alaska, Anchorage* |
| Hillsdale | Indiana Wesleyan |
| Towson | N. Carolina State |
| Baylor | AEI |
| Denver | Minnesota |
| California State University, Northridge | Chicago |
| Chapman | Metropolitan State College of Denver |
| Hillsdale | Clemson |
| Econforecaster (N.Carolina) | Chicago |
| Marquette* | FRB Atlanta* |
| Colorado* | Univ. Texas – Dallas |
| Georgetown | Northern Illinois |
| Barton College | AEI |
| Georgia State | Cornell |
| California State University, Chico | Chapman |
| Northern Illinois | California State University* |
| Pacific Research Institute | Univ. Illinois – Chicago |
| Michigan State | Duke |
| Arizona | Center for Health Policy |
| Univ. Texas – San Antonio | Nevada |
| Trine University | Metropolitan State College, Denver |
| N. Carolina State | Wayne State |
| New Mexico | Robert Niehaus, Inc. |
| Montana* | Penn State |
| Texas | Penn |
| Univ. South Florida | Louisiana State |
| Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation (Wash., DC) | Cornell |
| Missouri | Duquesne |
| Mercer University | Montgomery County Community College (PA) |
| Franciscan University of Steubenville | Texas A&M |
| Hillsdale University | Colorado at Colorado Springs |
| Bellevue University | Univ. Texas – El Paso |
| Michigan State University | Central Michigan University |
| AEI | University of Denver |
| Columbia | SUNY – Buffalo |
| U. Mass Boston* | UC Irvine |
| Houston | Toledo |
| Missouri University of Science and Tech | St. Cloud |
| UCLA | Printing Industries of America |
| Carnegie Mellon | Ball State University |
| Emory | Mississippi |
| Classicalprinciples.com (Mich.) | Iowa |
| Lipscomb (Tenn.) | Univ. Missouri – St. Louis |
| North Dakota State |
……….
Where * denotes emeritus or retired or former status. I used the postal address for the institutions such as consulting firms, journals or think tanks, to determine geographical location.
I’ve excluded Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware from the definition of the South; using the more expansive definition raises the ratio to 45/127 = 35.4%.
The Mason-Dixon Line in Health Care Reform: Economists Edition
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