Finalists for “Are you smarter than an economist?

May 31, 2010

As you  know, I offered a prize of $1,000 to the person who accurately predicted an improvement in two measures: change in GDP and employment. Entries are closed, but the winner–and whether there will be one– is still unknown.

  • 130 people entered the contest.
  • The first measure, growth in GDP, was reached in the 3rd quarter of last year.
  • 13 guessed right on GDP.
  • Of those,  only 6 may still be correct on unemployment (Unemployment predictions for the 13 varied from September 2009 through October of 2011.)
  • Stay tuned–I’ll let you know the outcome, but at the rate things are going, it could be a while; e.g., April unemployment has gone from 5.0% in ’08 to 8.9% in ’09 to 9.9% this year.