Hello,
I am not an Economics professor, but I know a few. I am a retired professor of Spanish and Education at Purdue University. My job involved pre-professional education of teachers and I also had a number of doctoral candidates. I would be happy to correspond with you «a.garfinkel@insightbb.com». I know how to find information on various topics, so it could be that I might be of some help to you even if I know very little about economics. You, in turn, could be of real help to my lifelong hobby -- stamp collecting. If you know any stamp collectors, perhaps you could get me their e-mails. If you have access to used Indian postage stamps, particularly those issued in honor of one event or another, I would happily at least reimburse the cost of gathering and sending same. (I could pay via Paypal.)
There is a best selling popular treatment of Economics here called FREAKONOMICS. It is somewhat humorous, but more importantly, it explains how economists gather data and make pronouncements. I found it most interesting. Apparently others did too because the authors now have a weekly column in THE NEW YORK TIMES. Both co-authors are from the University of Chicago.
Sincerely,
Alan Garfinkel