Tag Archives: Economics

The labor shortage myth .[embedded content]

Keynes’ General Theory was a massive step forward relative to classical economics, but it was also a step backward in its denial of the conflictual nature of capitalism. There is need to understand Keynes’ technical contributions regarding the workings of monetary economies, but also need to understand the flaws within his thinking and the consequences […]

Contrary to the tenets of orthodox economists, contemporary research suggests that, rather than seeking always to maximise our personal gain, humans still remain reasonably altruistic and selfless. Nor is it clear that the endless accumulation of wealth always makes us happier. And when we do make decisions, especially those to do with matters of principle, we seem not to engage in the sort of rational “utility-maximizing” calculus that orthodox economic models take as a...

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...

I denna nyutkomna bok presenterar Mikael Priks och Jonas Vlachos — professorer i nationalekonomi vid Stockholms universitet — en genomgång av viktiga metoder ekonomer har till sitt förfogande för att göra empiriska analyser av stora och aktuella samhällsfrågor. Med utgångspukt i ekonometriska och statistiska modeller diskuterar man vilka olika identifikationsansatser  som används för att undgå olika former av ‘selektionsbias’ när ekonomer försöker utröna kausala...

The money multiplier – neat, plausible, and utterly wrong The mainstream textbook concept of money multiplier assumes that banks automatically expand the credit money supply to a multiple of their aggregate reserves.  If the required currency-deposit reserve ratio is 5%, the money supply should be about twenty times larger than the aggregate reserves of banks.  In this way, the money multiplier concept assumes that the central bank controls the money supply...

Luigi Pasinetti (1930-2023) In Memoriam Sad news has reached us today. Only two weeks after Victoria Chick’s death, another giant among Post Keynesian economists, Luigi Pasinetti, passed away yesterday at the age of 92. R.I.P.

Economic forecasting — why it matters and why it is so often wrong As Oskar Morgenstern noted in his 1928 classic Wirtschaftsprognose: Eine Untersuchung ihrer Voraussetzungen und Möglichkeiten, economic predictions and forecasts amount to little more than intelligent guessing. Making forecasts and predictions obviously isn’t a trivial or costless activity, so why then go on with it? The problems that economists encounter when trying to predict the future...

Hyman Minsky and the IS-LM obfuscation As a young research stipendiate in the U.S. yours truly had the pleasure and privilege of having Hyman Minsky as a teacher. He was a great inspiration at the time. He still is. The concepts which it is usual to ignore or deemphasize in interpreting Keynes — the cyclical perspective, the relations between investment and finance, and uncertainty, are the keys to an understanding of the full significance of his...

En vanlig missuppfattning när det gäller oönskad variabilitet i bedömningar är att det inte spelar någon roll eftersom slumpfel tar ut varandra. Det stämmer att positiva och negativa fel i en bedömning av samma fall mer eller mindre tar ut varandra och vi kommer att diskutera mer i detalj hur denna omständighet kan utnyttjas för att minska bruset. Men brusiga system gör inte flera bedömningar av samma fall. De gör brusiga bedömningar av olika fall. Om en försäkring har för hög...