BY DAVID WESSEL

A new website is assembling what it calls "the world's best economics department" in a bid to give prominent academic economists a louder and unfiltered voice in key public-policy debates.

The site, run by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, plans to pose one question a week and post answers from 40 senior professors at elite U.S. universities. The site went live Sunday, though the panel has been responding to questions for the past few weeks.

On some issues, there was widespread agreement. For instance, 83% said China is keeping the exchange rate of its currency "lower than ...