Economic Scene
IF you are reading this column, it is clear that you are interested in economics and economic policy. But what about the rest of the population? How do people learn about the economy and economic policy? How much do they know? How does it affect their views?These are questions that my Princeton colleague Alan S. Blinder and I ask in a study just completed for the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Last spring we surveyed a random sample of 1,002 people on their views about economic policy. As part of the survey, we administered a quiz on basic facts, like the size of the federal budget deficit, the level of the minimum wage, the share of income paid in taxes, and the percent of Americans without health insurance.
