About Yoram Bauman, Ph.D.
“An economist who teaches at the University of Washington
and performs stand-up comedy” (New York Times)
Yoram Bauman, The Stand-Up Economist
Yes I really do have a Ph.D. in economics (University of Washington, 2003, here’s my CV), and of course I went to Reed College. I currently live in Seattle (with my fabulous girlfriend Laura Gee) and juggle 6 or 8 part-time jobs, depending on how you count them.
FAQ #1: What are your goals in life?
To spread joy to the world through economics comedy; to reform economics education; and to implement carbon pricing, preferably through a revenue-neutral tax shift involving lower taxes on things we like (working, saving, investing) and higher taxes on things we don’t like (e.g., carbon) through either a carbon tax or an auctioned cap-and-trade system.
FAQ #2: What are your day jobs?
Since 2006 I’ve been the environmental economist for the University of Washington’s award-winning Program on the Environment. I also teach part-time at Lakeside High School and at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, and when I get the chance I do some consulting, mostly on the economics of climate change.
I perform at colleges, comedy clubs, and corporate events around the country and around the world; I am the producer of Non-Profit Comedy, a benefit show that has raised over $75,000 for Seattle-area non-profits; I am the Specialized Co-Editor for Miscellany of Economic Inquiry; I blog about economics and more; and I write books like The Cartoon Introduction to Economics.
FAQ #4: How can I get a hold of you or suggest another FAQ?
Email me or fill out my contact form. I’d love to hear from you!
FAQ #5: How did you start doing comedy?
In graduate school I blew off some steam by writing a parody of the “ten principles of economics” in Greg Mankiw’s best-selling textbook, and in 2003 my parody got published in a science humor journal called the Annals of Improbable Research. They run a humor session every year at the AAAS annual meeting, and in 2004 it happened to be in Seattle so they invited me to present my paper. I had so much fun I started going to open-mic nights at the Comedy Underground, and the rest is history.
FAQ #6: Are you really “the world’s first and only stand-up economist”?
Yes, it even says so on the internet! Among those who may take issue with this claim are Louis Ashamallah, Merle Hazard, “socialist magician” Ian Saville; the BBC’s Evan Davis; Robert Mundell, Columbia, who won the Nobel Prize and appears regularly on Dave Letterman; Victor Fuchs, Stanford (pic); William Breit, Trinity; Peter Orazem, Iowa State; Ben Stein (”cited by Akerlof”); Tim Harford, “Dear Economist” author for the Financial Times; Steven Tomlinson, UT Austin; Ariel Rubinstein, Tel Aviv University; David Powell, Boston Comedy Festival finalist and MIT grad student; Paul Solman, PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; Shaun Eli, a comic who graduated from the Wharton School; Steve Zanetti of Freeman H.S. (Richmond VA); and James Kurre of Penn State Erie. Apologies to all, and email me if you belong on this list.
FAQ #7: Anything else to apologize for?
My video “Principles of Economics, Translated” contains two unattributed quotes: “9 out of 5″ is adapted from a line attributed to Paul Samuelson — he said it about Wall Street indices, not macroeconomists — and “wrong about things” is paraphrased from P.J. O’Rourke’s Eat the Rich
FAQ #8: Stand-up comics and economists all seem to be depressed or otherwise troubled. Are you?
Nope! I do, however, suffer from faceblindness (at least according to my self-diagnosis) , so if you say hello and I give you that puzzled look then please give me a clue. PS. If you’re a journalist and you’re determined to write a depressed-comic-economist story then you can point out that I’m depressed about how we’re not doing enough about climate change; also, you can write that my mother was bipolar and took her own life. (I try not to hide that because mental illnesses are hidden too much in our world and they shouldn’t be.) Having said that, though, I should emphasize the point I made up above: I generally feel like I lead a charmed life.
