Lars P. Syll

Ceteris paribus — an alibi fairy When applying deductivist thinking to economics, mainstream economists usually set up ‘as if’ models based on a set of tight axiomatic assumptions from which consistent and precise inferences are made. The beauty of this procedure is of course that if the axiomatic premises are true, the conclusions necessarily follow. The snag is that if the models are to be relevant, we also have to argue that their precision and rigour still holds when they are applied to...

Economic modelers — in need of a code of conduct Auditors have a code of conduct because financial information is open to abuse and people rely on this information to make important decisions. Actuaries … have a code of conduct that includes context, basic rules and a declaration of fairness and accuracy. A consistent standard would be in the interest of the economic modelling industry and its reputation. We call on the government to develop a code of conduct to ensure the standard of all...

School choice — the elite illusion The results reported here suggest that an exam school education produces only scattered gains for applicants, even among students with baseline scores close to or above the mean in the target school. Because the exam school experience is associated with sharp increases in peer achievement, these results weigh against the importance of peer effects in the education production function … Of course, test scores and peer effects are only part of the exam...

Mainstream economics — a wildly inconsistent project In fact, most mainstream economists have never concerned themselves much with the workings of the economic systemm as a whole … The dominant concern, rather, has been, and remains, with highly specific or partial analyses of some highly restricted sectors or forms of behaviour … To the extent that it has ever been meaningful for the various disparate results or theorems of these economists to be considered as a whole, the clearest...

Top 10 theory of science books for economists • Archer, Margaret (1995). Realist social theory: the morphogenetic approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press • Bhaskar, Roy (1978). A realist theory of science. Hassocks: Harvester • Cartwright, Nancy (2007). Hunting causes and using them. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press • Chalmers, Alan  (2013). What is this thing called science?. 4th. ed. Buckingham: Open University Press • Garfinkel, Alan (1981). Forms of explanation: rethinking...

En del badhus har separata badtider för kvinnor – bland annat Rosengårdsbadet i Malmö, som marknadsför ”enbart kvinnlig personal på plats och fönstren skyddas för insyn” … Skilda badtider. Skilda träningstider. Skilda lokaler. Valbart och frivilligt? Liberalt, alltså? Nej, faktiskt inte … Om hela badet stängs för alla av det ena könet när det andra badar så drabbas alla. Inte bara av att inte kunna bada just där och då, utan av att synen på det motsatta könet blir sned och jämställdhet...

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Scandalous and dangerous economics It cannot be denied that there is something scandalous in the spectacle of so many people refining the analyses of economic states which they give no reason to suppose will ever, or have ever, come about. It probably is also dangerous. Equilibrium economics … is easily convertible into an apologia for existing economic arrangements and it is frequently so converted.   Frank Hahn    

Taking into account the subtle nature of the underlying differentiation of assumptions, whose subtlety is exponentially increased by the structural lack of transparency with regard to the question how to assign one’s assumptions to explanatory and auxiliary hypotheses, it is unsurprising to see interpretations according to both extremes within the whole of economic literature. For neoclassical theory as an intellectual construct such a state implies an enormously advantageous situation....

 [embedded content] Old love dies hard …