Lars P. Syll

Diskriminering — en fråga om preferenser eller information? Preferensbaserad diskriminering bygger på att exempelvis arbetsgivare, kunder eller medarbetare hyser en motvilja mot dem som tillhör en viss grupp. Sådan diskriminering kan leda till löneskillnader mellan diskriminerade och icke-diskriminerade grupper. Löneskillnaderna kan emellertid undermineras av konkurrens, som gör att arbetsgivare utan diskriminerande preferenser kommer att göra större vinst...

Ed Leamer’s Tantalus on the Road to Asymptopia is one of my favourite critiques of econometrics, and for the benefit of those who are not versed in the econometric jargon, this handy summary gives the gist of it in plain English: Most work in econometrics is — still — made on the assumption that the researcher has a theoretical model that is ‘true.’ Based on this belief of having a correct specification for an econometric model or running a regression, one proceeds as if the...

Non-manipulability and the limits of potential outcome models The Potential Outcome framework starts by defining the potential outcomes with reference to a manipulation. In doing so it makes a distinction between attributes or pre-treatment variables which are fixed for the units in the population, and causes, which are potentially manipulable. This is related to the connection between causal statements and randomized experiments. The causes are...

Come give me love .[embedded content] Det är en tröst att Teds och Kenneths underbara texter och musik fortfarande finns kvar. Men att de inte vandrar vid min sida är svårt att förlika sig med. Första gången jag hörde Ted var jag femton år gammal. Under mina tonår var han en stor idol. Det kommer han alltid att vara.

Econometricians would like to project the image of agricultural experimenters who divide a farm into a set of smaller plots of land and who select randomly the level of fertilizer to be used on each plot. If some plots are assigned a certain amount of fertilizer while others are assigned none, then the difference between the mean yield of the fertilized plots and the mean yield of the unfertilized plots is a measure of the effect of fertilizer on agricultural yields. The...

.[embedded content] Ich glaub’ das zu träumen / die Mauer / Im Rücken war kalt / Die Schüsse reissen die Luft / Doch wir küssen / Als ob nichts geschieht / Und die Scham fiel auf ihre Seite / Oh, wir können sie schlagen / Für alle Zeiten / Dann sind wir Helden / Nur diesen Tag

Interpreting confounder and modifier coefficients The problem with a table presenting multiple estimated effect measures from the same model (“Table 2”) is that it encourages the reader to interpret all these estimates in the same way, typically as total-effect estimates. As illustrated above, the interpretation of a confounder effect estimate may be different than for the exposure effect estimate. Of course, it is possible that some secondary reported...

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.[embedded content] If thou hast shown mercy unto man, o man, that same mercy shall be shown thee there; and if on an orphan thou hast shown compassion, that same shall there deliver thee from want. If in this life the naked thou hast clothed, the same shall give thee shelter there, and sing the psalm: Alleluia.

The difference between logic and science .[embedded content] In mainstream economics, both logic and mathematics are used extensively. And most mainstream economists sure look upon themselves as “twice blessed.” Is there any scientific ground for that blessedness? None whatsoever! If scientific progress in economics lies in our ability to tell ‘better and better stories’ one would, of course, expect economics journals to be filled with articles...