If you're trying to build a strong programme in a university, the economic arguments are not going to carry the day often. And so leading in an institution, if you lead only as an economist, i think you fail pretty fast. You'd need a lot of sensitivity. Is it crass to say that we may also want the best educated women to have children, because if we think about our population generally, it's really nice to have high ice in the population? Saita crass thought? Yes, that's a really crass thought. I'll stop there then.
Enrollment is down for the first time in memory, and critics complain college is too expensive, too elitist, and too politicized. The economist Chris Paxson — who happens to be the president of Brown University — does not agree. (Part 3 of “Freakonomics Radio Goes Back to School.”)