Lars P. Syll

A girl like you .[embedded content]

Does it — really — “take a model to beat a model”? When we provide such a critique, we often hear another mantra to which many economists subscribe: ‘It takes a model to beat a model.’ On the contrary, we believe that it takes facts and observations to beat a model … If a model fails to answer the problem to which it is addressed, it should be put back in the toolbox … It is not necessary to have an alternative tool available to know that the plumber who...

Is economics already pluralist? Some argue that economics as a science is already pluralist and that the critique of pluralists addresses a strawman. Newly emerged research areas such as behavioral economics are often presented as examples. Yet, to assess the argument that ‘economics is already pluralist’, one has to be explicit about the dimension and degree of plurality that is being considered … Considering the topical dimension of economics, for...

.[embedded content]

The recurring pattern in financial crises is more or less the same. For some reason, a shift occurs in the economic cycle (such as war, innovations, new regulations, etc.) that leads to changes in the profit opportunities for banks and companies. Demand and prices rise, pulling more and more parts of the economy into a state of euphoria. Speculative mania, whether it pertains to tulip bulbs, real estate, or mortgages, becomes a reality. Sooner or later, someone sells to cash...

Keynes and the casino According to Keynes, financial crises are a recurring feature of our economy and are linked to its fundamental financial instability: It is of the nature of organised investment markets, under the influence of purchasers largely ignorant of what they are buying and of speculators who are more concerned with forecasting the next shift of market sentiment than with a reasonable estimate of the future yield of capital-assets, that, when...

Jesper Jespersen reviewing my latest book Having read Syll’s book, one cannot avoid wondering how it is that modern mathematical economics still holds such a dominant position in terms of textbooks and economic practice. This is especially so if you consider two things: First, if one peruses the shelves of economic literature of any major bookstore (in London or even Copenhagen), it is clearly books written by dissenting economists which dominate the...

Econometrics — science based on unwarranted assumptions Unfortunately, assumption uncertainty reduces the status of deductions and statistical computations to exercises in hypothetical reasoning – they provide best-case scenarios of what we could infer from specific data. Even more unfortunate, however, is that this exercise is deceptive to the extent it ignores or misrepresents available information, and makes hidden assumptions that are unsupported by...

In science, courage is to follow the motto of enlightenment and Kant’s dictum — Sapere Aude!  To use your understanding, have the ​courage to think for yourself and question ‘received opinion,’ authority or orthodoxy. In our daily lives, courage is the capability to confront fear, as when in front of the powerful and mighty, not to step back, but stand up for one’s right not to be humiliated or abused. Courage is to do the right thing in spite of danger and fear. As when the...

.[embedded content]