Lars P. Syll

Wren-Lewis and the Rodrik smorgasbord view of economic models In December 2015 yours truly run a series of eight posts on this blog discussing Dani Rodrik‘s Economics Rules (Oxford University Press, 2015). There sure is much in the book I like and appreciate. It is one of those rare examples where a mainstream economist — instead of just looking the other way — takes his time to ponder on the tough and deep science-theoretic and methodological questions that underpin the economics...

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Lennart Schön (1946-2016) In Memoriam Swedish economic historians were deeply saddened to learn of the death earlier this month of professor Lennart Schön. Schön contributed to many areas of Swedish economic history. Most important was his development of a long-run cycles perspective on Swedish industrial society’s history (on which we worked together in a couple of research projects in the 1990s, carrying further the structural analytical tradition of Johan Åkerman, Erik Dahmén and Ingvar...

Den 21 januari är det fjorton år sedan Fadime Sahindal mördades; hennes pappa vägrade låta henne välja sitt liv. Den gången var det laddat att tala om hedersrelaterat våld, om miljöer där släktens rykte hängde på kvinnornas dygd. Tidigare hade kulturella olikheter rentav betraktats som förmildrande omständigheter. Sådan kulturrelativism är lyckligtvis historia. Men fortfarande lever tiotusentals unga svenskar i miljöer präglade av hederskultur och vittnesmål från förorter avslöjar att...

When will Krugman catch up with Keynes? In his column this morning, Paul Krugman, had this to say about issues that have mattered a lot to me over many years now. I admire Krugman, of course, but this is bullshit, pure and simple. Not the Harry Frankfurt kind, which requires willful ignorance of the facts, but the everyday kind, which requires mere ignorance of the historical record. “Don’t say that redistribution is inherently wrong. Even if high incomes perfectly reflected productivity,...

Wren-Lewis on macroeconomic eclecticism Oxford macroeconomist Simon Wren-Lewis has a post up today on his blog discussing whether mainstream macroeconomics is eclectic or not. His answer is — both yes and no: Does this mean academic macroeconomics is fragmented into lots of cliques, some big and some small? Not really … This is because these models (unlike those of 40+ years ago) use a common language … It means that the range of assumptions that models (DSGE models if you like) can make...

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There have been over four decades of econometric research on business cycles … The formalization has undeniably improved the scientific strength of business cycle measures … But the significance of the formalization becomes more difficult to identify when it is assessed from the applied perspective, especially when the success rate in ex-ante forecasts of recessions is used as a key criterion. The fact that the onset of the 2008 financial-crisis-triggered recession was predicted by only a...

Je suis Charlie encore aujourd’hui Ska vi kunna leva tillsammans, människor från olika länder, kulturer och religioner, så måste det finnas tydliga spelregler: Detta gäller i Sverige. För alla. Respekt för lagen, för demokrati och mänskliga rättigheter, jämlikhet och jämställdhet, allas lika värde och individens rätt att välja sitt liv. När väl det är på plats står det var och en fritt att tillbe sin gud, bära slöja och fira jul, pesach, eid al-fitr. Eller låta bli.   Det är särskilt...