Lars P. Syll

Natural experiments in economics Thad Dunning’s book Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences (CUP 2012) is a very useful guide for economists interested in research methodology in general and natural experiments in specific. Dunning argues that since random or as-if random assignment in natural experiments obviates the need for controlling potential confounders, this kind of “simple and transparent” design-based research method is preferable to more...

The tools economists use In their quest for statistical “identification” of a causal effect, economists often have to resort to techniques that answer either a narrower or a somewhat different version of the question that motivated the research. Results from randomized social experiments carried out in particular regions of, say, India or Kenya may not apply to other regions or countries. A research design exploiting variation across space may not yield the...

All Along The Watchtower (personal) [embedded content] In loving memory of my brother Peter, a big Jimi Hendrix fan.

La vita davanti a sé .[embedded content]

Econometrics — science based on whimsical assumptions It is often said that the error term in a regression equation represents the effect of the variables that were omitted from the equation. This is unsatisfactory … There is no easy way out of the difficulty. The conventional interpretation for error terms needs to be reconsidered. At a minimum, something like this would need to be said: The error term represents the combined effect of the omitted...

Tony Lawson on economics and social ontology .[embedded content] Modern economics has become increasingly irrelevant to the understanding of the real world. In his seminal book Economics and Reality (1997), Tony Lawson traced this irrelevance to the failure of economists to match their deductive-axiomatic methods with their subject It is — sad to say — as relevant today as it was twenty-five years ago. It is still a fact that within mainstream economics...

När Magdalena Andersson varnar för att Sverige kan hamna i samma läge som de krisande euroländerna visar hon bristande insikt om finanspolitikens grundläggande villkor. Så länge Sverige lånar i sin egen valuta utan fast växelkurs kan Riksbanken avvärja sådana kriser. Det finns ingen osynlig gräns som Sverige plötsligt kan korsa och bli som Grekland bara för att vi ökar vår statsskuld. Skillnaden mellan vår valutaregim och euroländernas är inte kvantitativ utan kvalitativ. Det...

Pourquoi la dette publique n’est pas un problème .[embedded content]

Why yours truly and other Swedes love paying our taxes .[embedded content]

Who’s afraid of MMT? As anyone who has ever been responsible for legislative oversight of central bankers knows, they do not like to have their authority challenged. Most of all, they will defend their mystique – that magical aura that hovers over their words, shrouding a slushy mix of banality and baloney in a mist of power and jargon … In our day, the voices of Modern Monetary Theory perturb the sleep not only of present central bankers, but even of...