Lars P. Syll

The dangers of calling your pet cat a dog The assumption of additivity and linearity means that the outcome variable is, in reality, linearly related to any predictors … and that if you have several predictors then their combined effect is best described by adding their effects together … This assumption is the most important because if it is not true then even if all other assumptions are met, your model is invalid because you have described it...

Man’s best friend (personal) The youngest member of the Meyer-Syll family — Hedda. And yes — Ibsen is one of yours truly’s favorite dramatists …

Why economics is an impossible science In a word, Economics is an Impossible Science because by its own definition the determining conditions of the economy are not economic: they are “exogenous.” Supposedly a science of things, it is by definition without substance, being rather a mode of behavior: the application of scarce means to alternative ends so as to achieve the greatest possible satisfaction—neither means, ends, nor satisfaction substantially...

Dann sind wir Helden  [embedded content] Ich glaub’ das zu träumen / die Mauer / Im Rücken war kalt / Die Schüsse reissen die Luft / Doch wir küssen / Als ob nichts geschieht / Und die Scham fiel auf ihre Seite / Oh, wir können sie schlagen / Für alle Zeiten / Dann sind wir Helden / Nur diesen Tag

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly  [embedded content] Ennio Morricone (1928-2020) in memoriam.

    Spending most of my time nowadays — in the shadow of the pandemic — at my summer residence in the Karlskrona archipelago, yours truly has plenty of time enjoying nature’s wonders. Pure energy for the soul.

Economics — the new astrology  [embedded content]

    A great economist has passed away. R.I.P.

It’s said that a star falls from heaven each time someone dies  [embedded content]In loving memory of my mother Lisbeth Lissmark Pålsson (1937-1989). Those whom the gods love die young.

Piketty and the need for validating assumptions Say we have a diehard neoclassical model (assuming the production function is homogeneous of degree one and unlimited substitutability) such as the standard Cobb-Douglas production function (with A a given productivity parameter, and k  the ratio of capital stock to labor, K/L) y = Akα , with a constant investment λ out of output y and a constant depreciation rate δ of the “capital per worker” k, where the...