Lars P. Syll

If the social sciences are useless, why do we study them? The thing about social science is that it hasn’t produced much. We social scientists don’t have an inferiority complex; we really are inferior. Physics has produced locomotives, semiconductors, and the atomic bomb. Chemistry has produced amazing new materials. Biology has produced the coronavirus vaccine, and lots more. Social science has produced . . . what, exactly? A method of evaluating...

On the use of logic and mathematics in economics Logic, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion – thus: Major Premise: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man. Minor Premise: One man can dig a post-hole in sixty seconds; Therefore- Conclusion: Sixty...

The truly scientific attitude I recall, with sadness, a comment made to me by the author of a well-known textbook. Upon being asked whether he accepted my analysis of demand theory as presented first in 1948, the reply was positive. He added that it would not be included in his advanced textbook because “it would upset too many things and be too disturbing, i.e., Dicta non movere.” So much for the acceptance of new scientific results and for a truly...

Erdogans Türkei — von der Demokratie zur Diktatur .[embedded content] Am Sonntagabend sah ich Monteverdis Die Krönung der Poppea in der Berliner Staatsoper, eine mythische Geschichte aus dem Intrigenpalast von Kaiser Nero. Bei der Krönungsszene am Ende liegt die Hälfte der Helden in ihrem Blut am Boden. Anschließend ging ich zum Bebelplatz, wo die Nazis 1933 Bücher ins Feuer geworfen haben. Ich versuchte, mir diese Nacht der Bücherverbrennung vor 85 Jahren...

My favourite library girls (personal) Hedda (7), Linnea (21), and Tora (28)

Using the wild bootstrap in SPSS (student stuff) .[embedded content]

Marx & Hegel — om den svåra konsten att vända en upp och nervänd värld rätt .[embedded content]

Agent-based modelling in economics I DSGE sono i modelli più diffusi in accademia e nei dipartimenti di ricerca delle banche centrali. Anche prima della Grande Recessione, dovuta, secondo la vulgata, alle banche. Il modello è spesso rimproverato per non aver previsto la crisi, ma il problema è diverso. Come vedremo nel prossimo capitolo, e già si intuisce dal problema delle nonlinearità, la disciplina economica non può prevedere: il vero problema è che non...

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There really is something about the way macroeconomists construct their models nowadays that obviously doesn’t sit right. In mainstream economic theory models largely function as a substitute for empirical evidence. One might have hoped that humbled by the manifest failure of its theoretical pretences during the latest economic-financial crises, the one-sided, almost religious, insistence on axiomatic-deductivist modelling as the only scientific activity worthy of pursuing in...