Lars P. Syll

So much for the ’empirical’ revolution in economics Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words … Source: Merijn Knibbe Advertisements

Thought of kissing my wife in public today, but I got second thoughts …  [embedded content] Advertisements

Blah blah blah economics A key part of the solution to the identification problem that Lucas and Sargent (1979) seemed to offer was that mathematical deduction could pin down some parameters in a simultaneous system. But solving the identification problem means feeding facts with truth values that can be assessed, yet math cannot establish the truth value of a fact. Never has. Never will. In practice, what math does is let macroeconomists locate the FWUTVs...

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Does truth matter in economics? In my view, scientific theories are not to be considered ‘true’ or ‘false.’ In constructing such a theory, we are not trying to get at the truth, or even to approximate to it: rather, we are trying to organize our thoughts and observations in a useful manner. Robert Aumann What a handy view of science. How reassuring for all of you who have always thought that believing in the tooth fairy make you understand what happens to...

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Why diversity trumps ability  [embedded content] Advertisements

Lump to live — the rationale for categorical models  [embedded content] Great lecture by one of my favourite lecturers — Scott Page. Advertisements

Kruskal’s algorithm (student stuff)  [embedded content] Advertisements

Debt deflation and liquidity traps Deflationary policies are deflationary. To a large extent deflations have been caused by tight monetary and fiscal policies pursued by central banks. With a defensive fiscal policy and a targeted inflation rate set at a very low level, real inflation easily turn negative. Another consequence of austere fiscal and monetary policies is that overall unemployment get stuck at a high level. This is deeply worrying, especially...