Lars P. Syll

The empirical turn in economics Ce qui fait l’unité de la discipline est plutôt l’identification causale, c’est-à-dire un ensemble de méthodes statistiques qui permettent d’estimer les liens de cause à effet entre un facteur quelconque et des résultats économiques. Dans cette perspective, la démarche scientifique vise à reproduire in vivo l’expérience de laboratoire, où l’on peut distinguer aisément la différence de résultat entre un groupe auquel on...

How many permutations exist of the ten digits (0-9) that either begin with”123″, contain “56” in the 6th & 7th positions, or end with “789”?

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. George Bernard Shaw Adam Smith once wrote that a really good explanation is “practically seamless.” Is there any such theory within one of the most important fields of social sciences — economic growth? In Paul Romer’s Endogenous Technological Change (1990)...

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On models and simplicity When it comes to modelling yours truly does see the point emphatically made time after time by e. g. Paul Krugman about simplicity — at least as long as it doesn’t impinge on our truth-seeking. ‘Simple’ macroeconomic models may of course be an informative heuristic tool for research. But if practitioners of modern macroeconomics do not investigate and make an effort of providing a justification for the credibility of the simplicity...

How to prove things .[embedded content] Great lecture series. Yours truly got Solow’s book when he was studying mathematics back in the 80s. Now in its 6th edition, it’s better than ever.

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Macroeconomics and the Friedman-Savage ‘as if’ logic An objection to the hypothesis just presented that is likely to be raised by many … is that it conflicts with the way human beings actually behave and choose. … Is it not patently unrealistic to suppose that individuals … base their decision on the size of the expected utility? While entirely natural and under- standable, this objection is not strictly relevant … The hypothesis asserts rather that, in...

In state of emergency .[embedded content] Koncerten i S:t Pauli kyrka tidigare i kväll var för yours truly en av årets musilkaliska höjdpunkter. Har ni möjlighet så missa inte koncerten (gratis) i Allhegonakyrkan i Lund i morgon kl. 19.00!

Yours truly har rykte om sig att vara en krävande tentator. Det stämmer nog. Men det finns alltid de som haft det ‘värre’ … [embedded content]