Real-World Economics Review

from Emmanuelle Bénicourt, Sophie Jallais and Camille Noûs and RWER #98 The case of distribution of revenue Marginal product is a key concept of neo-classical economics, for, in the perfect competition model, it determines inputs’ demands (the quantities chosen by a competitive profit-maximizing firm are such that the value of the input’s marginal product equals the input’s real price). It is then a core concept of neoclassical distribution theory, the so-called ‘marginal productivity...

In tax we trust. To our fellow millionaires and billionaires, If you’re participating in  the World Economic Forum’s ‘online Davos’ this January , you’re going to be joining an exclusive group of people looking for an answer to the question behind this year’s theme, ‘how do we work together and restore trust?’ You’re not going to find the answer in a private forum, surrounded by other millionaires and billionaires and the world’s most powerful people. If you’re paying attention, you’ll...

from Lars Syll and WEA Commentaries Macroeconomists seem to me the biggest offenders n not taking such empirical issues (of practical data handling) seriously enough. This might sound like sheer contrarianism given that macroeconomists are constantly wielding data; after all, their business is analysing the behaviour of the whole economy and forecasting its future path. My concerns are, first, that too few think about the vast uncertainty associated with the statistics they download and...

from Lars Syll A couple of weeks ago yours truly had a review of Diane Coyle’s Cogs and Monsters in WEA Commentaires. As I wrote, there’s a lot in the book to like, but unfortunately also some things very hard to swallow. James Galbraith seems to argue along the same lines in his Project Syndicate review: Coyle subscribes to the grand illusion that price adjustment is the economy’s prime mover. But as the Cambridge Keynesian economist Nicholas Kaldor noted in his slim 1985 book, Economics...

from Thomas Palley Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Richard Clarida has shot himself in the foot with what appears to be insider trading. That comes on the heels of prior concerns about inappropriate trading by regional Federal Reserve Bank Presidents Robert Kaplan and Eric Rosengren. Albeit unintentionally, the good news is these indiscretions may have done working families a favor by helping disprove the notion of central bank independence. For years, many of us have argued that central bank...

from Lars Syll A view yours truly often encounters when debating MMT is that there is an inflationary bias in MMT and that its framework ignores expectations. It is extremely difficult to recognize that description. Given its roots in the writings of Keynes, Lerner, and Minsky, it is — to say the least — rather amazing to attribute that view to MMT. Let me just quote one source to show how ill-founded the critique is on this issue: MMT recommends a different approach to the federal...

Here is a video submission I made in order to teach kids English. Short, sweet and educational! Leave a like if you enjoyed it.

Coronavirus has widened the cracks in this unequal system, fuelling a pernicious cycle of poverty and economic inequality in Asia. The World Bank estimates that coronavirus and rising economic inequality pushed 140 million additional people into poverty in Asia in 2020, and 8 million more in 2021.6 New variants alongside higher inequality levels than expected7 mean these figures are likely to be underestimates. Yet, while lockdowns and economic stagnation destroy the livelihoods of many...

from Lars Syll MMT includes both problematic propositions and perfectly reasonable — even highly useful — positions. In the latter category, the idea that stands out is essentially functional finance theory. Proposed by Abba Lerner in 1943, FFT holds that, because governments borrowing in their own currency can always print money to service their debts, but still face inflation risks, they should aim to balance supply and demand at full employment, rather than fret about balancing the...

from Dean Baker The national debate on free trade is one where honesty has no place. The purpose of our trade agreements, which were not free trade, was to reduce the pay of manufacturing workers, and non-college educated workers more generally, to the benefit of more highly educated workers and corporations. This was the predicted (by standard economics) and actual result. We made our manufacturing workers compete with low-paid workers in China and elsewhere in the developing world. This...