Tag Archives: Economics

Where modern macroeconomics went wrong In issue 1-2 (2018) of Oxford Review of Economic Policy, the editors have invited some well-known contemporary mainstream macroeconomists (including e.g. Simon Wren-Lewis, Randall Wright, Olivier Blanchard, Ricardo Reis, Joseph Stiglitz) to give their views on how to rebuild macroeconomic theory for the future. Some of the contributions are interesting to read. Others — like Wren-Lewis and Blanchard — seem to think...

Economists may not necessarily share the economic and social interests of the true believers and may have a variety of individual psychic states regarding the economic and social effects of the utopia which they cloak with mathematical reason. Nevertheless, they have enough specific interests in the field of economic science to contribute decisively to the production and reproduction of belief in the neoliberal utopia. Separated from the realities of the economic and social...

Mainstream economics and neoliberalism — what is the difference? Oxford professor Simon Wren-Lewis had a post up some time ago commenting on traction gaining ‘attacks on mainstream economics’: One frequent accusation … often repeated by heterodox economists, is that mainstream economics and neoliberal ideas are inextricably linked. Of course economics is used to support neoliberalism. Yet I find mainstream economics full of ideas and analysis that permits a...

Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action. My colleague Rebecca Rouse guest edits today’s faiV newsletter from NYU’s Financial Access Initiative (you can subscribe for a weekly dose of financial inclusion news). Spectacular job opportunity from the International Rescue Committee working with NYU and Sesame Workshop, leading M&E on their MacArthur $100 Million-winning project to help war-affected kids. Alaka Holla picks up the question of whether we should give up on...

The present state of economics More and more often, confidence in the professional qualifications of individuals representing certain occupational groups which formerly were held in high esteem has started to erode. Dismissing scientific evidence and ignoring expert opinion has become a feature of political discourse around alternative truth. In part this is self-inflicted as various statements that are publicized with the aura of academic certainty do not...

What’s the use of economics? The simple question that was raised during a recent conference … was to what extent has – or should – the teaching of economics be modified in the light of the current economic crisis? The simple answer is that the economics profession is unlikely to change. Why would economists be willing to give up much of their human capital, painstakingly nurtured for over two centuries? For macroeconomists in particular, the reaction has...

Using economics as a propaganda device The most serious deficiency of implicit formal theories is that the verbal language disguises the abstractness of the theory … The consequence of the fallacy of misplaced concreteness is that the theory looks too convincing to its proponents​ … He becomes​ the prisoner of his own logical model and is rendered incapable​ of seeing reality from any other standpoint … The most widespread example is provided by the...

Interview mit Esther Duflo ZEITmagazin: Ich könnte Ihnen von ähnlichen Absurditäten aus dem deutschen Bildungswesen erzählen. Duflo: Und bestimmt nicht nur aus den Schulen. Darum haben wir unsere Methode aus den Entwicklungsländern nach Europa und in die USA exportiert. Viele Länder der EU zum Beispiel bezahlen jungen Arbeitslosen ein Training für Bewerbungsgespräche. Wir haben randomisierte Experimente gemacht: Die Arbeitslosen mit Training finden...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Causal Friday: The Dumbest Differences-in-Differences Ever, Viral Video Edition…: I have to admit, I kind of feel like my super nuanced efforts to tease out non-obvious cause and effect were a little wasted…

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Causal Friday: The Dumbest Differences-in-Differences Ever, Viral Video Edition…: I have to admit, I kind of feel like my super nuanced efforts to tease out non-obvious cause and effect were a little wasted…