Lars P. Syll

Cutting wages — the wrong medicine A couple of years ago yours truly had a discussion with the chairman of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (yes, the one that yearly presents the winners of ‘The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel’). What started the discussion was the allegation that the level of employment in the long run is a result of people’s own rational intertemporal choices and that how much people work...

Why is 0! =1? [embedded content] The single most important factor behind successful education — from kindergarten to university — is, and has always been — having a good teacher!

Erdogan — der am schnellsten beleidigte Präsident Erdoğan ist der Staatspräsident, der weltweit entweder am häufigsten beleidigt wird oder am schnellsten beleidigt ist. Seit seiner Wahl wurde gegen 68.817 Personen wegen Präsidentenbeleidigung ermittelt, innerhalb von drei Jahren wurden deshalb nahezu 13.000 Prozesse eröffnet und über 3000 Personen verurteilt … Vor drei Monaten wurde in Antalya ein Bettler wegen Präsidentenbeleidigung festgenommen. Er kam...

De dagar som blommorna blommar  [embedded content] Det bästa Gardell någonsin skapat. Lysande. Vacker. Omskakande. Gripande. Ett mästerverk. Se den!

De som talar om pengar De som framför allt dominerar i den svenska ekonomirapporteringen är ekonomer från banker och försäkringsbolag. Det visar en granskning av artiklar i svensk dagspress som Flamman har gjort. Vi går in med olika värderingar och synsätt. Det gör att man kommer till ganska olika slutsatser. Fackliga ekonomer uttalar sig bara i sex procent av artiklarna. Arbetsgivarorganisationer i nästan 20. Och banker och försäkringsbolag utgör...

Why Bayesianism has not resolved a single fundamental​ scientific​ dispute Bayesian reasoning works, undeniably, where we know (or are ready to assume) that the process studied fits certain special though abstract causal structures, often called ‘statistical models’ … However, when we choose among hypotheses in important scientific controversies, we usually lack such prior knowledge​ of causal structures, or it is irrelevant to the choice. As a consequence,...

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Economists telling fairy tales An important point is implicit. Economics is not hard because of math. The math in even graduate level economics is no greater than in sophomore physics. Classical economics is hard because it can attack social problems in a value-free, cause-and-effect way, and upends the little morality stories that most people use to think about those problems — rents are high because landlords are greedy. John Cochrane Mainstream...

20th anniversary for the euro — no reason for celebration When the euro was created twenty years ago, it was celebrated with fireworks at the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt. Today we know better. There are no reasons to celebrate the 20-year anniversary. On the contrary. Already since its start, the euro has been in crisis. And the crisis is far from over. The tough austerity measures imposed in the eurozone has made economy after economy...

General equilibrium theory — nonsense on stilts General equilibrium is fundamental to economics on a more normative level as well. A story about Adam Smith, the invisible hand, and the merits of markets pervades introductory textbooks, classroom teaching, and contemporary political discourse. The intellectual foundation of this story rests on general equilibrium, not on the latest mathematical excursions. If the foundation of everyone’s favourite economics...