Lars P. Syll

The misuse of mathematics in economics Many American undergraduates in Economics interested in doing a Ph.D. are surprised to learn that the first year of an Econ Ph.D. feels much more like entering a Ph.D. in solving mathematical models by hand than it does with learning economics. Typically, there is very little reading or writing involved, but loads and loads of fast algebra is required. Why is it like this? … One reason to use math is that it is easy to...

Chicago economics — garbage in, gospel out Every dollar of increased government spending must correspond to one less dollar of private spending. Jobs created by stimulus spending are offset by jobs lost from the decline in private spending. We can build roads instead of factories, but fiscal stimulus can’t help us to build more of both. This form of “crowding out” is just accounting, and doesn’t rest on any perceptions or behavioral assumptions. John...

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Alice “Ich lasse mir nicht mein Schnitzel weg nehmen” Weidel .[embedded content] Als ob jemand freiwillig das Schnitzel von einem widerlichen rechtspopulistischen Politiker wie Alice Weidel zu tun haben möchte …

Economic methodology — a critical realist perspective The field of economics has long been hailed as a bastion of rationality and objectivity, offering insights into the workings of present-day complex economic systems. However, questions about the foundations of economics and its prevailing methodological approach have to be raised. My own critique challenges traditional assumptions and argues for a more pluralistic and realistic understanding of economic...

The ultimate methodological issue in economics If scientific progress in economics — as Robert Lucas and other latter-day followers of Milton Friedman seem to think — lies in our ability to tell ‘better and better stories’ one would of course expect economics journals to be filled with articles supporting the stories with empirical evidence. However, the journals still show a striking and embarrassing paucity of empirical studies that (try to) substantiate...

Interventionist causes and modularity Modularity is the mark of a type of independence from context. The same functional relationship between variables will hold in a given component of the contributing mechanisms whether or not there is a change in a different component. The total effect may change when different components contribute, but the operation of the modular mechanism will not be changed nor change them. In situations where the presence or...

The causal revolution in econometrics has gone too far Kevin Lewis points us to this recent paper, “Can invasive species lead to sedentary behavior? The time use and obesity impacts of a forest-attacking pest,” published in Elsevier’s Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, which has the following abstract: “Invasive species can significantly disrupt environmental quality and flows of ecosystem services and we are still learning about their...

Chomsky’s critique of postmodernism .[embedded content] One of Chomsky’s primary critiques of postmodernism lies in its epistemological stance. Chomsky argues that postmodern scepticism about objective knowledge can undermine the pursuit of scientific inquiry, which relies on the assumption that there are objective truths waiting to be discovered. Chomsky’s criticisms are forceful reminders of the pitfalls of extreme relativism and scepticism, and yours...

When people hear the word “complexity,” they respond in different ways. Some think “complicated” or “messy,” not being able to see the forest for the trees. Others think of a clutter of matter going this way and that with no chance to get a purchase on its behavior, to take hold of the “blooming, buzzing confusion” (James 1890, 462). Others think “chaos,” in the traditional sense, something unrestrained and uncontrollable, a realm of unpredictability and uncertainty that...