Wants, needs and production
What is a ‘want’ and what is a ‘need’? Do these things change over time and how do we provide for them? These are the issues being considered by Pablo at Kiwipolitico in a fashion that may confuse many...
View ArticleBleg: Facts and beliefs
Question: Why is it that, in economics (compared to other disciplines), people are a lot less likely to let observed facts change their opinion on what is going on, or how the world works? Is it...
View ArticleRobots, uber richness, unemployment: Points to keep in mind
I think the statement “points to keep” in mind is currently my favourite thing around … however, I digress and I haven’t actually started the post yet. Over at the Dim Post Danyl has an interesting...
View ArticleThe importance of incentives
This story is a great example of how institutions can shape incentives, in order to change outcomes. The women of Barbacoas, Colombia have ended a three-month, 19-day “crossed legs” strike of sexual...
View ArticleNeuroeconomics is exciting, and scary
Great article from Shiller on neuroeconomics. The more justification, and more positive side, of neuroeconomics is mentioned here: Under Samuelson’s guidance, generations of economists have based...
View ArticleThe issue of assumptions
In a recent post, James recently raised an essential, and fascinating, point on assumptions. To borrow his own words: Assumptions are often made for tractability, rather than realism, yet still...
View ArticleEthics and description
In the past couple of days I’ve run into a couple of places in the internet that left we confused. First, via Education Directions I noticed this article on the way of “valuing assets” that takes into...
View ArticleTwo links that reinforce my priors
On bubbles (My point: I keep hearing bubbles matter because “financial stability influences monetary policy” like it is a big idea … but really, no sh*t. Government spending “influences” monetary...
View ArticleThe excel error in Rogoff-Reinhart
I see the Rogoff-Reinhart figures regarding the correlation between GDP growth and the size of the debt stock are currently under attack – due largely to an unfortunate excel error discovered reported...
View ArticleOn economics as method
Via Mark Thoma’s twitter feed came this gem on “neo-classical economics”. It strongly supports my view on what economics is so let’s have a peak at the conclusion: I sometimes argue that the main...
View ArticleResource booms and income distribution
Via Vox Eu comes a piece looking at the distributional consequences of resource booms – using Australian data. Their conclusion: We need good time series data from developing countries to see whether...
View ArticleQuote of the day: Pinker on changes in social sciences
Via Noah Smith. We have the following post on the Pinker vs Wieseltier debate on science and humanities (if you have a chance I would suggest reading the debates themselves as well). The era in which...
View ArticleOn microfoundations
Some recent post on the necessity of microfoundations that I found interesting. Issues about microfoundations. Why you don’t need rigorous microfoundations. Update: Zombie Marx – illustrating the...
View ArticleBreaking windows, doors, and GDP
This week Mieke Welvaert discussed (Infometrics link) the broken window fallacy. GDP measures the value produced within a geographic entity. Even though it seems damaging property could increase GDP,...
View ArticleQuote of the day: Uskali Maki on economics
From the prelude to ‘Fact and Fiction in Economics‘ comes the following gem by Maki: “Is economics a respectful and useful reality-oriented discipline or just an intellectual game that economists play...
View ArticleWhat does it mean to have “many models”
Dani Rodrik has been arguing that the mistake many economists, and non-economists, make is to look for “one right model” – when in truth economics is a form of craft, where you have a multitude of...
View ArticleBefore railing against economics, read this
I had trouble getting out of bed this morning, so to help get me going I decided to read an essay about economics. And I ran back into a treat of an essay I think we should all read. This is Modern...
View ArticleThinking about what ‘economics’ is
I am trying to gradually clarify my perception of what economics is. Here are some cliff notes from a recent discussion I had: Economists try to answer questions about “the allocation of resources...
View ArticleCan physicists please look at a basic textbook before releasing these things
FFS, this is probably the worst example of a physicist treating economists like idiots, and saying something both meaningless and already known, that I’ve seen for a while (via Marginal Revolution)....
View ArticleCommon sense, economics, and beliefs
I see Scott Sumner has come out saying that we shouldn’t necessarily judge economic outcomes on whether they meet a “common sense” test, giving the example of an individual looking at social security....
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