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Category: Blogging

(Re)subscribe via Email

As a result of having to get rid of subscribe2 — the plugin I used up until the Holidays to manage email subscriptions to this blog — I lost all of my email subscribers.

I am therefore writing to ask those of you who used to be email subscribers to take a few seconds of your time to subscribe anew by entering your email address in the box on the right-hand side.

And if you were not an email subscriber to begin with, why not subscribe today? You will receive all of my posts in your inbox the minute they are posted, and it is easy to unsubscribe.

Also, if you look in the upper left corner, you’ll see an orange button that allows you to subscribe via RSS. If you are the type of person who uses Google Reader (or any other reader that allows subscribing to RSS feeds), or if you would rather keep your inbox free, this is the best option for you.

Of course, I am grateful for each and every tweet, retweet, Facebook “Like,” and Reddit share or upvote readers send my way.

Happy Blog Anniversary and Happy New Year!

Today marks the second anniversary* of this blog. I started blogging two years ago with the following awkward paragraph:

While economists-cum-bloggers seem to be in excess supply, the shadow value of this blog need not be zero. As an economist interested in development economics and law and economics and whose focus is on agricultural development policy, I also hope to offer a unique contribution to the policy debate.

Since then, my writing has come a long way, and my interest in law and economics has been replaced by my interest in food policy. As a consequence of blogging and tweeting, I have also made several new friends and acquaintances, and my research has had an impact beyond the Ivory Tower.

Moreover, the mere act of writing for a general audience has forced me to think much more carefully about my research topics, which has in turn generated new research ideas. So it looks as though blogging need not be a substitute for research. Rather, it can actually be a complement to research.

No New Posts Until Next Week

It’s finals week at Duke. This means that most of my time will be spent holding office hours, grading exams, and holding office hours.

I will thus not be posting until next week, until something I really must talk about comes along. To all the students who read this blog, good luck on your final exams and term papers!