Lars P. Syll

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Dynamic and static interpretations of regression coefficients When econometric and statistical textbooks present simple (and multiple) regression analysis for cross-sectional data, they often do it with regressions like “regress test score (y) on study hours (x)” and get the result y = constant + slope coefficient*x + error term. When speaking of increases or decreases in x in these interpretations, we have to remember that it is a question of...

Never seek to tell thy love [embedded content] Listening to the choral music on Armonico Consort’s Naked Byrd Two anthology is an unending delight. One of my favorite albums.

Stephen Marglin sur le besoin d’une nouvelle théorie économique Peut-on élaborer une nouvelle théorie économique qui permettra d’influencer les gouvernements actuels et futurs dans le sens du progrès, de la résolution des crises et de la recherche du bien-être collectif ? Oui, bien entendu, mais cela ne se fera pas en un jour. Nous devrons pour cela commencer par désapprendre les fondements de l’économie traditionnelle – le présupposé de l’individualisme,...

Warum der Neoliberalismus uns kaputt macht .[embedded content]

While raising worthwhile points, most discussions I see misunderstand randomization in both causal and statistical ways. Notably, randomization can be valuable but does not induce balance in the ordinary English sense of the word, nor does it deal with most problems of real experiments. Furthermore, the use of the word “balance” to describe what randomization actually does invites confusion with the ordinary English meaning of “balance” (as does use of ordinary words like...

Förväxla inte samhällsekonomi med hushållsekonomi Det er foruroligende, at to tidligere overvismænd, såkaldte ’topøkonomer’ Torben M. Andersen og Michael Svarer uden at ryste på hånden kan konkludere først i Jyllandsposten (20. juni, 2020) og dernæst uændret i Altinget så sent som 15. januar 2021 på følgende måde: ’Mindre brug af offentlige ressourcer i dag øger muligheden for større offentligt forbrug i fremtiden, og bidrager således til også at have et...

Zemmour, Vichy et les juifs de France .[embedded content]

Do RCTs really control for ‘lack of balance’? Mike Clarke, the Director of the Cochrane Centre in the UK, for example, states on the Centre’s Web site: ‘In a randomized trial, the only difference between the two groups being compared is that of most interest: the intervention under investigation’. This seems clearly to constitute a categorical assertion that by randomizing, all other factors — both known and unknown — are equalized between the experimental...

How to compute causal effects using regression (student stuff) .[embedded content]