Lars P. Syll

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Instrumental variables (student stuff) .                                                                                                                                 [embedded content]

Leontief and the sorry state of economics Page after page of professional economic journals are filled with mathematical formulas leading the reader from sets of more or less plausible but entirely arbitrary assumptions to precisely stated but irrelevant theoretical conclusions … Year after year economic theorists continue to produce scores of mathematical models and to explore in great detail their formal properties; and the econometricians fit algebraic...

With any phenomenon of interest, understanding its nature or essential properties allows us to relate to, or interact with, it in more knowledgeable and competent ways than would otherwise be the case … A surprising number of social theorists, when embarking on substantive analyses, pay almost no attention at all to insights bearing on the nature of these (or any other) factors. Instead, the preferred option is to select the types of methods, procedures or tools to be...

.                                                                                                                                [embedded content] Die Querdenker verleugnen die Realität und haben offenbar ein sehr vereinfacht Verständnis von der Welt und insbesondere von der aktuellen Pandemie.

Maradona was more than just an extraordinary footballer. He was also a complicated social icon. That further distinguishes him from other footballers, though Pele also has some of that… He was both rewarded by and terribly exploited by the system. The system treated him like a “race horse”. They wanted him to play at all cost and pumped him with drugs. They did not care about the physical and psychological costs to him. That contributed to his addiction … He came from great...

Logic and truth in economics To be ‘analytical’ and ‘logical’ is something most people find recommendable. These words have a positive connotation. Scientists think deeper than most other people because they use ‘logical’ and ‘analytical’ methods. In dictionaries, logic is often defined as “reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity” and ‘analysis’ as having to do with “breaking something down.” But that’s not the whole...

Pandemic depression antidote (XXV) [embedded content] [embedded content]

Sydsvenskan — grodors plums och ankors plask på ledarsidan I Sydsvenskans huvudledare kunde vi tidigare i år läsa följande: Gång på gång framhåller [73-punkts]överenskommelsen också att fokus ska ligga på kvalitet — inte driftsform — i den politiska styrningen av olika välfärdstjänster. Detta är givet ur liberalt perspektiv. Trots de brister som finns inom vissa verksamheter har avregleringarna på det hela taget gett medborgarna bättre service, utbud och...

 In practice, what math does is let macro-economists locate the FWUTVs [facts with unknown truth values] farther away from the discussion of identification … Relying on a micro-foundation lets an author say, “Assume A, assume B, …  blah blah blah … And so we have proven that P is true. Then the model is identified.” … Distributional assumptions about error terms are a good place to bury things because hardly anyone pays attention to them. Moreover, if a critic does see that...