既然是部经济学家的回忆，自然会说到经济学家。经济学家在Stigler心目中也是学者。因此，《斯蒂格勒谈学者》的说法都适用。只是经济学家或许还有些特殊之处。

经济学家往往给人唯利是图的印象。Stigler在序言中就承认经济学家往往不受公众欢迎，“…economists have been the premier ‘pourers of cold water’ on proposals for social improvement, to the despair of the reformers and philanthropists who support these proposals. (p. 4)” 而且“Economists are messengers who so ofter bring bad news, and so earn the reputation of such messengers. (p. 6)” Stigler试图对公众说明经济学家是否都是坏蛋，结论很公允。“Economistes are neither distinctively good nor bad, no more or less virtuous or brave or generous or faithful than the sum o f mankind, and certainly no more modest. If they, and of course that means we, have any claim to the favorable regard of others, it is because they are a little different. Economics is the only reasonably well developed social science (see what I said about modesty?) in that it has an extensive, operable, tested theoretical system. Living in economic science makes economists think a little differently than other people, and I hope these differentces will be interesting. (p.7)”

与其他学者一样，经济学家要改变世人的看法，需要努力复述、阐述和争论。“The individual economist who seeks to change the views of the profession has essentially zero prospects of success unless he or she is gifted with ideas and heavily endowed with energy, as I have already remarked. The ideas will be easier to sell the more congenial they are to the profession, so an extension of familiar doctrine will be much more readily accepted than a basic reorientation of the science. The new ideas will normally require much repetition, elaboration, and, desirably, controversy, for controversy is an attention getter and sometimes a thought getter. (p. 67)” 各个学科其实都如此，只是许多学科只需要说服同行，而不需要公众理解。作者还举出具体例子说明自信在职业中的重要性。有人是“… a highly competent economist who lacked only one resource, self-confidence. (p. 40)”

Stigler说明了学术职业，主要是大学中，经济学家的优势―合作。“Association with a group of able celleagues is a strong advantage that a professor usually has over a nonacademic economist. (p. 36)” “Collaboration among economists has taken on a more literal role than mutually beneficial discussion in the past twenty-five years. (p. 37)”

Stigler讨论了为政府工作的经济学家，认为他们本质上是政客而非学者。“The very nature of the political process demands as much loyalty to the administration by the economist as he shows to his side in adversary proceedings. (p. 135)” “I conclude—and perhaps I am alone in concluding —that when the economist goes to Washington, he deserves no more credence, and no less, than any other political appointment, and it is mildly deceptive to address his as Doctor or Professor. (p.136)” 我觉得这个说法有利于我自己理解社会生活的经济方面。

当然Stigler自己也是经济学家，也记录了自己的治学经验和学术贡献。与多数学问大家相似，Stigler起家于实证性研究“…the systematic use of statistical data to estimate economic relationships and to test economic theories. (p. 27)”有些学者往往喜欢做空洞的规范性研究，以上帝般的口吻，要有这个，也要有那个，还要有……，表达自己的种种愿望。这样通常难成大器。当然，傻瓜比较多的话，也许能赚些小钱和虚名。

Stigler这样总结他的早期研究。“I acquired familiarity with the sources, construction, and use of economic data, and even more I acquired respect for the power of empirical data in testing economic theories. At leading centers of economic theory, such as MIT, it has been the practice to ask: Is the new theory logically correct? That is a good question but not as good as a second question: Does the new theory help us to understand observable economic life? (p. 71)”后面关于问题的提法是很精辟的见解。

经验研究出徒之后，Stigler自己也终于成了名家。他的主要贡献是信息经济学。“My most important contribution to economic theory is probably the treatment of information as a valuable commodity that is produced and purchased. (p. 80)”现在听起来或许有些平淡无奇，但这实在是个改变人们普遍观念的贡献。 “… it is no longer permissible to assume tacitly that buyers and sellers are fully informed; information is never perfectly free (it costs a newspaper to learn the prices of common stocks). We now believe that one will find a variety or distribution of prices in almost all markets, with the extent of the variety depending largely on the cost of information. (p. 217)” 正是被人们广泛接受，所以才显得司空见惯。这种观念有个很深刻但可能被人们忽略或回避的推论，除了自己的至爱亲朋，旁人给的建议通常无用，因为免费。我自己的经验观察，越是重要的建议，无用的可能性越大。

Stigler回忆录的系列札记到此结束。这是本我很喜欢看的书，因此抄了些我觉得有趣的话。

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