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Jokes about economists and economics
I believe that even Adam Smith would enjoy these jokes.
I have gathered these jokes from various sources, e.g. news, friends, readers of this page, etc. Unfortunately I wasn't able to list all the persons who invented these jokes which would probably be impossible. Therefore, I will not give the sources unless someone asks for it. All the following jokes are somehow related to the profession of economists. Though some jokes are more general and economist could be substituted with some else profession I try to maintain the "purity" of the page. No joke is completely politically correct even if I try to avoid personal or dirty jokes. Therefore, if you are afraid of being offended please do not continue. Otherwise, relax and be my guest!
JokEc is a collection of professional humor for the benefit of economists as well as non-economists.
1st WWW-edition 24/10/1994 (d/m/y) Update 16/04/2001 Part of the NetEc group since 27/3/1997
Before the 2nd Millennia ended, JokEc had existed for over five years and had some 450,000 hits!
Use the find function for searching. Latest jokes are marked with +
A low graphics page with some simple java - best browsed with Netscape 3.0 or better
See also text only jokes page and a note on the history of the page
* A story of this page was published in the article "Laugher Curve" in Business Week May 8, 1995 issue by William Glasgall
* Mentioned also among many other papers in the 8/11/1995 San Francisco Chronicle, the 18/12/1995 New York Times, January 1996 Playboy, the 7/7/1996 El Espectador (Bogota), 13/3/1999 the Economist and appeared on Finnish TV in August 1996
* Cooperation with McGraw-Hill: partly included in an educational software DiscoverEcon.
* Joined NetEc in March 1997
* Some translations are available in German, Italian, Japanese (1), Japanese (2), Spanish,Portuguese and Chinese.
Economics is the only field in which two people can get a Nobel Prize for saying exactly the opposite thing. Humor is evolving, now we have a refinement:
"Economics is the only field in which two people can get a Nobel Prize for saying the opposite thing" is true, but is not strong enough. Better:
"Economics is the only field in which two people can share a Nobel Prize for saying opposing things." Specifically, Myrdal and Hayek shared one.
Roberto Alazar
(A rumor has it that there was a similar case in neuroscience, Golgi and Cajal, maybe economists are not so different!) Heard at the Wharton School.
Man walking along a road in the countryside comes across a shepherd and a huge flock of sheep. Tells the shepherd, "I will bet you $100 against one of your sheep that I can tell you the exact number in this flock." The shepherd thinks it over; it's a big flock so he takes the bet. "973," says the man. The shepherd is astonished, because that is exactly right. Says "OK, I'm a man of my word, take an animal." Man picks one up and begins to walk away.
"Wait," cries the shepherd, "Let me have a chance to get even. Double or nothing that I can guess your exact occupation." Man says sure. "You are an economist for a government think tank," says the shepherd. "Amazing!" responds the man, "You are exactly right! But tell me, how did you deduce that?"
"Well," says the shepherd, "put down my dog and I will tell you."
A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job.
The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly."
Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four."
Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says "What do you want it to equal?" TOP 10 REASONS TO STUDY ECONOMICS
1. Economists are armed and dangerous: "Watch out for our invisible hands."
2. Economists can supply it on demand.
3. You can talk about money without every having to make any.
4. You get to say "trickle down" with a straight face.
5. Mick Jagger and Arnold Schwarzenegger both studied economics and look how they turned out.
6. When you are in the unemployment line, at least you will know why you are there.
7. If you rearrange the letters in "ECONOMICS", you get "COMIC NOSE".
8. Although ethics teaches that virtue is its own reward, in economics we get taught that reward is its own virtue.
9. When you get drunk, you can tell everyone that you are just researching the law of diminishing marginal utility.
10. When you call 1-900-LUV-ECON and get Kandi Keynes, you will have something to talk about.
ECONOMISTS do it at bliss point
ECONOMISTS do it cyclically
ECONOMISTS do it in an Edgeworth Box
ECONOMISTS do it on demand
ECONOMISTS do it risk-free (in reference to the risk-free interest rate)
ECONOMISTS do it with a dual
ECONOMISTS do it with an atomistic competitor
ECONOMISTS do it with crystal balls
ECONOMISTS do it with interest
"Economists do it with models"
Heard at the LSE. Econometricians do it if they can identify it.
Applied econometricians do it even if they can't. Economists do it with Slutsky matrices. Economists do it discretely AND continuously. Economists do it on Leontief's table.
Heard at the Bocconi university in Milan. "Econometricians do it with dummies"? Morry Adelman at MIT claims that he heard this at Shell long ago:
"A planner is a gentle man,
with neither sword nor pistol.
He walks along most daintily,
because his balls are crystal."
Mike Lynch, MIT
Kathy Martin
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