Lars P. Syll

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...

Valet — nu får vi skörda vad vi sått Idag avgörs det hur Sverige kommer att styras under närmsta fyra åren. I en av de absolut viktigaste och avgörande frågorna i detta val — integrationspolitiken — har de etablerade partierna under decennier betett sig så här: Och nu får man skörda resultatet av denna förfelade ‘politiska korekthet’. Visst — några partier har insett allvaret under de senaste åren och istället för att peka finger valt att äntligen prata om...

Economics needs a new Reformation A more pluralist approach would take account of the complexity of markets, the constraints imposed by nature and rising inequality. So what needs to be done? Firstly, listen to consumers, because it is pretty obvious that they are unimpressed with what they are getting. The failure of the economics establishment to predict the crisis and its insistence that austerity is the right response to the events of a decade ago has...

 [embedded content] Advertisements

The range of men and women I happen to be reading The Puppet Masters, a Heinlein novel from the 1950s … and came across this line: “Listen, son—most women are damn fools and children. But they’ve got more range than we’ve got. The brave ones are braver, the good ones are better—and the vile ones are viler. . . .” What struck me about the above quote is how it goes in the opposite of current received wisdom about men and women, the view, associated with...

Secular stagnation and failed interpretations​ of Keynes Commenting on the Stiglitz-Summers debate on secular stagnation, Roger Farmer writes: We cannot continue to make unfounded assertions about economic policy using the failed interpretation of the General Theory that evolved from John Hicks’ attempt to reconcile Keynes with the classics. The current manifestation of that approach is so-called New Keynesian Economics, which Summers himself has rightly...