Which teacher or professor had the biggest impact on your career path (whether it was an economist or someone who taught another subject), and what made that person a good teacher?
There is a long line of educators from my elementary school days through graduate school and beyond who have had profound influences on my career path. I would start with those who encouraged a love for reading, writing, and independent investigation. Being an academic economist entails asking good questions and crafting clearly written answers; that is at the core of what we do. The single most important professor in my career has been Jeff Williamson. Jeff was both my undergraduate thesis advisor and my dissertation advisor. His expertise, genuine enthusiasm for research and teaching, generosity of time, and confidence in his students (including me) made a world of difference.
Economics is a much more quantitative field than it was a long time ago. What are the trade-offs when it comes to this change?
There have been real gains from the quantitative turn in economics. In theory, it requires more precise statements of the model one has in mind and descriptions of how it works. In empirical work, it requires better data and more careful interpretation of patterns detected in those data. I suppose one tradeoff is that it is easy to loose sight of the forest when one is deep in the technical trees. Many of the problems we work on require intense attention to technical details, but communicating the importance of any project requires a broader vision. A second potential tradeoff is that some important and complex questions may not be well suited to formal modeling and econometric analysis, but it might still be useful for economists to weigh in on those questions to the extent that we can.
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