Lars P. Syll

Interview with Tony Lawson Jamie Morgan: Let’s return to your work on economics and place this in the context of how you came to work in the field. As suggested in the biographical introduction, you have been closely associated with the critique of the ‘formalisation’ of theory and the dominance of mathematical modelling, including the use of statistical techniques, not least econometrics. Were you always critical of these? Tony Lawson: I was. Or at...

La Sagrada Famiglia (personal) Tora (27), Amanda (30), David (30), Sebastian (27), Linnea (21) and Hedda (6). It was great to be able to have all our sons and daughters home over Christmas holidays in spite of the ongoing pandemic. To me that was the greatest pandemic depression antidote of all.

The future of macroeconomics But why are DSGE models still in the mix at all, and in a key position? Given all the criticisms, what can such models tell us, even as a ‘first pass at important questions’? Multiple equilibria do allow for discussion of a wider range of scenarios, but any discussion of a particular scenario is still constrained by the requirements of general equilibrium theory. These requirements are at the root of the more fundamental...

When should we trust science? .[embedded content] Using formal mathematical modelling, mainstream economists sure can guarantee that the conclusions hold given the assumptions. However the validity we get in abstract model-worlds does not warrant transfer to real-world economies. Validity may be good, but it isn’t — as Nancy Cartwright so eloquently argues — enough. From a realist perspective, both relevance and soundness are sine qua non. In their search...

Clearly, neoclassical economists believe that neoclassical microeconomic theory is theoretically coherent and provides the best explanation of economic activity; therefore there is no good reason to not teach it, if not exclusively. Many heterodox economists also broadly agree with this position, although not with all the particulars. However, sufficient evidence exists showing that as a whole neoclassical microeconomic theory is theoretically incoherent and without empirical...

Der Himmel über Berlin .[embedded content] Watching Peter Handke’s and Wim Wenders’ masterpiece — a movie that touches my heart more than any other — takes me back to the city I learned to love already back in the 1970’s. Als das Kind Kind war, ging es mit hängenden Armen, wollte der Bach sei ein Fluß, der Fluß sei ein Strom, und diese Pfütze das Meer. Als das Kind Kind war, wußte es nicht, daß es Kind war, alles war ihm beseelt, und alle Seelen waren...

What is wrong with modern economics? It is simply that modern economists persist in insisting that a set of tools be everywhere adopted that are mostly inadequate to social analysis, given the nature of social phenomena … To put the matter bluntly (the pun may be useful), it is like attempting to cut the grass with a hammer or a piece of paper. The latter objects have their uses, but mowing the lawn is not one of them. Methods of applied mathematics of the...

A milestone in the history of human rights .[embedded content]

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Una farfalla che muore sbattendo le ali [embedded content]