Probability and confidence — Keynes vs. Bayes
An alternative possibility is to accept the consequences of the apparent fact that the central prediction of the Bayesian model in its descriptive capacity, that people’s choices are or are ‘as if’...
View ArticlePISA-resultat och ekonometriska modellspecifikationer
Det är inte ofta som skillnader mellan olika ekonometriska modellspecifikationer skapar rubriker i media men när PISA-undersökningen släpptes för några veckor sedan hände just detta. Orsaken var att...
View ArticleMainstream economics — nothing but an assumption-making Nintendo game
In advanced economics the question would be: ‘What besides mathematics should be in an economics lecture?’ In physics the familiar spirit is Archimedes the experimenter. But in economics, as in...
View ArticleKeynes betrayed
To complete the reconciliation of Keynesian economics with general equilibrium theory, Paul Samuelson introduced the neoclassical synthesis in 1955 … In this view of the world, high unemployment is a...
View ArticleProper use of regression analysis
Level I regression analysis does not require any assumptions about how the data were generated. If one wants more from the data analysis, assumptions are required. For a Level II regression analysis,...
View ArticleEconometrics textbooks — vague and confused causal analysis
Econometric textbooks fall on all sides of this debate. Some explicitly ascribe causal meaning to the structural equation while others insist that it is nothing more than a compact representation of...
View ArticleEconomists — nothing but a bunch of idiots savants
Let’s be honest: no one knows what is happening in the world economy today. Recovery from the collapse of 2008 has been unexpectedly slow … Policymakers don’t know what to do. They press the usual (and...
View ArticleMilton Friedman’s critique of econometrics
Tinbergen’s results cannot be judged by ordinary tests of statistical significance. The reason is that the variables with which he winds up, the particular series measuring these variables, the leads...
View ArticleEconomic growth and the size of the ‘private sector’
Economic growth has since long interested economists. Not least, the question of which factors are behind high growth rates has been in focus. The factors usually pointed at are mainly economic, social...
View ArticleThe search for heavy balls in economics
One of the limitations with economics is the restricted possibility to perform experiments, forcing it to mainly rely on observational studies for knowledge of real-world economies. But still — the...
View ArticleProbability calculus is no excuse for forgetfulness
When we cannot accept that the observations, along the time-series available to us, are independent, or cannot by some device be divided into groups that can be treated as independent, we get into much...
View ArticleMurray Rothbard on Adam Smith
Adam Smith (1723-90) is a mystery in a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. The mystery is the enormous and unprecedented gap between Smith’s exalted reputation and the reality of his dubious contribution to...
View ArticleNew study shows marginal productivity theory has only a ‘negligible’ link to...
The correlation between high executive pay and good performance is “negligible”, a new academic study has found, providing reformers with fresh evidence that a shake-up of Britain’s corporate...
View ArticleFor-profit schools — a total disaster
To make education more like a private good, [voucher advocates] tried to change the conditions of both supply and demand. On the demand side, the central proposal was that of education ‘vouchers’, put...
View ArticleCon te partirò (personal)
Living next to an Opera house sure has its benefits if you love opera. Just twenty minutes ago two lovely opera singers performed Con te partirò on the little piazza in front of my house. Awesome! This...
View ArticleReformation in economics
This is a book about human limitations and the difficulty of gaining true insight into the world around us. There is, in truth, no way of separating these two things from one other. To try to discuss...
View ArticleThe best economics article of 2016
The best economics article of 2016 in my opinion was Paul Romer’s extremely well-written and brave frontal attack on the theories that has put macroeconomics on a path of ‘intellectual regress’ for...
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