I said yesterday that there are many questions which aren't big election issues but which should be. Here, in no particular order, is a list of some:

1. What, if anything, can be done to raise productivity (pdf)?

2. Is our big external deficit a sign of worryingly high domestic borrowing, or is it rather due to the overseas savings glut?

3. Given that work makes people more miserable than pretty much any other activity, what (if anything) can be done to improve (pdf) job satisfaction?

4. Should we raise the inflation target, or lower it?

5. What should be the mix of fiscal and monetary policy? Labour is offering us a less tight fiscal policy. For a given inflation target, this implies a less loose monetary policy. Is this a good thing or not?

6. Is the financial sector too big, perhaps because it diverts talented people from other occupations or is a source of instability? Or is it instead the industry in which the UK has a comparative advantage?

7. Are there good positive arguments for a sustained smaller state, or is this merely a by-product of fiscal austerity?

8. Is wage-led growth really a feasible way of boosting trend growth?

9. Are we in an age of permanent secular stagnation? If so, what can governments do to combat it?

10. Is privatization of some NHS services really just a way of enriching the private sector, or could competitive tendering, properly organized, improve NHS productivity?

11. What's the best way of protecting workers from exploitative conditions? Is it legislation, or strengthening workers bargaining power through a tighter labour market and stronger unions?

12. Is hierarchy really the best way of structuring public (and private!) organizations? Or has managerialism been pushed too far, with the result that we are losing the benefits of cognitive diversity and the best use of dispersed, fragmentary knowledge?

13. Given that there's reasonable evidence that worker ownership can raise efficiency as well as happiness, should governments do more to encourage it? If so, what?

14.Is the rise in wealth and power of the 1% since the 1980s a problem - in economic or social terms - or not? If so, what to do about it?

I don't pretend this is a complete list: it's confined only to economics. In some cases - such as questions 12-14 - there are obvious reasons why these are not on the agenda. But in others, the silence is less easily explicable or justifiable. And I'm not sure whether the fault lies with politicians, the media - or voters.