Heterodox
During my recent hiatus from blogging, I have been pondering an important paper presented in June at the History of Economics Society meeting in Toronto, “The Standard Narrative on History of Macroeconomics: Central Banks and DSGE Models” by Francesco Sergi of the University of Bristol, which was selected by the History of Economics Society as the best conference paper by a young scholar in 2017.... Sergi’s paper is too long and too rich in content to easily summarize in this post, so...
Read More »Simon Wren-Lewis — Economists: too much ideology, too little craft
One of the features of mainstream economics today is the huge diversity of models that are around. Academic prestige tends to come to those who add to that number. But how do you decide which model to use when investigating a particular problem? The answer is by looking at evidence about applicability. That is not a trivial task because of the probabilistic and diverse nature of economic evidence, and Dani Rodrik describes that process as more of a craft than a science.... Mainly...
Read More »Lars P. Syll — Seven sins of economics
Pramit Bhattacharya quote. Double significant since it is a signal of rising criticism of the profession coming from outside the Anglo-American world that is presently dominant. Hopefully, this is a sign that this domination of ideas and methods will not spread and will be balanced soon. Lars P. Syll’s BlogSeven sins of economicsLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University
Read More »Jason Smith — Solow has science backward
Jason Smith makes a key observation here that many miss. Science is inherently a skeptical enterprise where conclusions are tentative on both forthcoming empirical findings and new explanations that challenge existing ones, which they may replace if they provide a better explanation in the view of the scientific community. "Firmly held beliefs" has another label — dogma. The dogmatic approach is opposite of the scientific one. Of course, this doesn't mean that fringe views are to be...
Read More »Bill Mitchell — When economists lose the plot entirely and show their colours
When I started studying economics at University, I had a lecturer in microeconomics who, thankfully, was an antagonist of the mainstream micro mantra about perfect markets and their capacity to deliver optimal, efficient outcomes for all. She is no longer with us but her early teachings have stayed with me (thanks Kaye!). She used to say that the market was like a voting system where the votes were cast in dollars. The rich have more votes and can sway the outcome in their favour. At the...
Read More »