Many economics blogs have thousands of sometimes influential readers. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
A growing number of top economists are offering up their wisdom on blogs, spending hours each day writing, usually for nothing.
The current Economist has an interesting piece on them, observing that you might think the "concept seems at odds with the notion of economists as intellectual instruments trained in the maximisation of utility or profit".
The bloggers cite a desire for influence and promotion of their work and the Economist says that the development creates a "welfare gain" for professors and the public because easy access to the best brains is no longer restricted to students and academics at elite colleges.
Some of the blogs have thousands of readers, including influential people at the IMF and the Federal Reserve.
The highlighted blogs include one by Brad DeLong, of the University of California, Berkeley, and a blog co-authored by the Nobel-prize winning economist Gary Becker and the judge and law professor Richard Posner.
Recent postings on the Becker-Posner blog tackle internet gambling and analyse moves by the US government to crack down on it.
Another economist mentioned in the article, Brad Setser, of Roubini Global Economics, does get paid to do up to three hours of blogging every day. His blog is particularly good for analysis about China.
It is also well worth checking out the Freakonomics blog, where the most recent entry at the time of writing is "Teen Sex Apparently Driven by Music not Libido".
