On Microeconomics (and CHP)

Long-time reader Rower32 made two very interesting comments a couple of days ago, which, while relayed to me through email, for some reason did not appear in the blog. First, he answered to my plea for help with next week's topic:

 Definitely something on income inequality! I didn't have time to do research on income inequality in Turkey or in other emerging economies in general. But it'd be nice to get some perspective. I've been reading a lot on that lately and my impression is you get different results depending on the way you slice and dice the data oh and on your political affiliation. But still the income inequality has been getting worse past 30 years in US and much of it is a result of tech innovation and education they say. Here's a good paper with tons of good stats and an interesting discussion with Robert Frank of Cornell. 

I had already got another suggestion along the same lines:

Maybe you can write about unemployment, poverty, income inequality, i.e. things that people on the street care about.

Another blogger, after translating "cigeri bes para etmez" as "your liver is worthless" (I went for "your liver is not worth a penny"), gave a similar suggestion:

i think you should write more in microeconomics.these are things that interest people and affect their lives.

This was our editor-in-chief's advice to me when I first started writing for the Daily News as well. After highlighting that almost all the Turkish economics columnists were writing about bonds, stocks and the exchange rate, he stressed the importance of writing about microeconomics, what really effects the average person on the street...

Although I have written very few columns about asset prices, and have no intention of devolving (is that the right word?- the opposite of evolve, i.e. a backward evolution) into a market economist, I have not exactly followed David's advice, either. This is because I got my official training in hard-core macro, but I did mostly micro during my stint as a think-tanker, so I should be able to handle more micro.

Anyway, I will try to move into more micro columns, and the first step should be an analysis of the CHP's economic policies- I guess I want yet more insults:)... I could wait until they disclose the full thing, or do a column about the family insurance scheme in the next two weeks. But whatever I do, I'll be sure to integrate poverty, inequality and unemployment into the picture...

Muchas gracias to all those who took the time to comment...