The department of economics is now offering a new web service, “Ask an Economist,” which has been designed to answer any and all questions the general public has about economics.

This service was started because the department received so many questions from students and the public at large about current economic issues and even economics in general.

“It is not uncommon to get questions out of the blue,” John Schroeter, interim chair of economics and economics professor, said. “It is more efficient to create a central portal and route [the questions] to the appropriate person.”

The service has only been available for a few weeks, and only in the last few days has the public actually started to using it.

“We have received about 10 questions,” Schroeter said. “Three have been answered so far.”

The entire economics department is involved in the project, answering questions based on their area of expertise.

“We look and decide who is a good person [to answer each question],” Schroeter said. “We have a pool of about 35 faculty members, plus staff and graduate students. Five [ISU economists] have been called on so far.”

In a statement, Schroeter also said that the “Ask an Economist” website is intended to make it easier for people to submit questions related to economics and to make sure those questions are given and answered by the proper faculty members.

The service is for the general public to ask basic questions. It is not intended to be homework help, financial advice, a way of advocating political issues or research support.

According to the official “Ask and Economist” webpage, the questions answered are “reasonable questions that could be interesting and informative to a wide range of people.”

The department receives a wide array of questions on numerous topics, but the category that most people ask about is taxes.

“We all pay taxes,” Schroeter said. “It is present in everyone’s mind, and there are a lot of political debates and proposals for changing the structure, and for raising and lowering taxes, as well.”

“So far, we have had a very positive response,” Kristin Senty-Brown, a communications specialist in the department of economics, said. “It is very encouraging. There is a lot of curiosity and questions being asked, and it is very productive.”

Questions are submitted anonymously to the website. The anonymous questions are then posted with the answer publicly. Response times may vary, depending on the depth and volume of questions asked.

To ask a question, or to read answers to questions submitted by others, the “Ask an Economist” website can be found at http://www.econ.iastate.edu/node/add/ask-an-economist.