Lars P. Syll

If life were only like this! When listening to — or reading — all the postmodern mumbo-jumbo​ that surrounds​ us today in social sciences and humanities, I often find myself wishing for that special Annie Hall moment of truth:  [embedded content] Advertisements

Agni Parthene — Valaam Brethren Choir  [embedded content] Advertisements

Pedagogik — ett ämne i fritt fall mot avgrunden Ingenstans i den svenska akademin befinner sig en disciplin mer uppenbart på randen av en antiintellektuell avgrund än pedagogiken. I inget annat akademiskt ämne har postmodern sanningsrelativism och kvasi-vetenskaplig mumbo jumbo fått en sådan framskjuten position. Ett tydligt belägg för sakernas bedrövliga tillstånd inom svensk så kallad “pedagogisk forskning” kan man få genom att till exempel läsa artikeln...

Why Hyman Minsky matters Listen to BBC 4 where Duncan Weldon tries to explain in what way Hyman Minsky’s thoughts on banking and finance offer a radical challenge to mainstream economic theory. As a young research stipendiate in the U.S. yours truly had the great pleasure and privilege​ of having Hyman Minsky as a ​teacher. He was a great inspiration at the time. He still is. Advertisements

Frihet — ett stillhetens rum  [embedded content] Advertisements

In the ongoing discussion on the ’empirical revolution’ in economics, some econometricians criticise — rightfully — the view that quasi-experiments and RCTs are the (only) true solutions to finding causal parameters. But — the alternative they put forward, structural models, have their own monumental problems. Structural econometrics — essentially going back to the Cowles programme — more or less takes for granted the possibility of a priori postulating relations that describe...

I det svenska riksdagsvalet kunde vi ännu en gång se hur ett högerpopulistiskt parti lyckats lockat över väljare från vänstern. Enligt SVT:s vallokalsundersökning röstar nu var fjärde LO-medlem på Sverigedemokraterna. Det är mer än en fördubbling sedan förra valet. Ska den svenska vänstern få ett stopp på denna utveckling måste man på allvar börja ta LO-medlemmars frågor, funderingar och oro på allvar. Vi har sett liknande tendenser i Tyskland, och där verkar en del av...

Economic policy — a political matter What kind of financial system do we want? What function should it have? What kind of financial activity do we want to permit or even encourage? These are essential questions for the shaping of economic and social policy at a national and global level. If we leave these questions up to the private sector, we expose ourselves to enormous risks. On the basis of our experience of 2008, we know how to master a massive heart...

Estadística y econometría no son muy útiles para entender la economía La mayor parte del trabajo en econometría y estadística se realiza suponiendo que el investigador tiene un modelo teórico que es “verdadero”. Sin embargo, “pensar que podemos construir un modelo donde todas las variables relevantes están incluidas, y que las relaciones funcionales que hay entre ellas están correctamente especificadas, no es solamente una creencia sin sustento, sino que es...

The euro — more pain, more suffering, and more unemployment The euro was supposed to bring shared prosperity, which would enhance solidarity and advance the goal of European integration. In fact, it has done just the opposite, slowing growth and sowing discord … The central problem in a currency area is how to correct exchange-rate misalignments like the one now affecting Italy. Germany’s answer is to put the burden on the weak countries already suffering...