Some time ago I wrote about convergence and the reception was mixed. Here’s one thing I’ve been toying with, unsuccessfully.
I took data from the ’60s on a bunch of countries, from PWT 6.2 and Polity IV, and did a cluster analysis (kmeans) to identify groups of countries that in [...]
Do tax cuts pay for themselves? In part, but overall no.
Does government spending pays for itself? In part, maybe, sometimes, but overall no.
I think that’s a moderate and cautious set of answers. Now, some seem to have other answers in mind: The Rebirth of Keynes, and the Debate [...]
The tax rebates (a.k.a. the “stimulus package”) worked. No they didn’t. Yeah they did, but if you use my definition of “working”! No, no, no!
Update 2: The data has been updated.
Update: I recreated the graph in Taylor’s article with FRED2 data, adding durables and non-durables (right [...]
God-among-men Samuelson says that inequality caused by free market policies depresses TFP: The Dynamic Moving Center. I can think of scenarios in which that makes sense. I can also think of scenarios in which political power depresses TFP enough to generate the close to 30 × differences [...]
Here’s something new I’m trying… Let’s revisit the most well known graphs and plots in Economics. For today, let’s look at the Great Divergence from the point of view of club convergence. A good reference here is Galor’s Convergence? Inferences from Theoretical Models. Basically, conditional convergence predicts convergence of [...]
Early in 2009Q2, when the hosting subscription for this site will expire, I don’t intend to renew it. I’m just to busy with graduate school to realistically expect to come up with more than 2-3 posts per month, one or two of which will have actual, original content. Overall, it’s [...]
Compared with micro textbooks, macro textbooks are full of real data:
You have the mandatory Solow-related graphs: Output per capita vs. capital stock per capita; Income per capita in 1960 versus average growth rate of income per capita between 1960 and 2000 (only OECD vs. all nations); etc. etc. You also [...]
It’s fashionable to put down RBC as irrelevant, wrong and/or a right-wing conspiracy. Fine, I guess, each is entitled to one’s own evaluation of models or research programs, but then again most of the critics are not all that consistent in their views.
RBC just puts together many elements of undergraduate [...]
I happened to take a look at Saari’s Decisions and Elections: Explaining the Unexpected and I have to enthusiastically second Michael’s enthusiasm for the man’s work. The nontechnical explanation given for Arrow’s Theorem makes the most sense out of what I’ve seen out there.
More on [...]
A few days ago I wrote a post asking for help on getting a new phone.
I ended up getting a iPod Touch for music and WiFi internet access (at home and at school) and keeping my pay-as-you-go phone for now, since my expenses with it have dropped significantly lately (fewer [...]
OK, if I’m going to see this argument again I’m going to have a stroke: The Fallacy of Self Regulation.
Yes, yes, yes… results require assumptions and without those assumptions the result will not hold. Sometimes we can talk about the genericity of a result. Without those assumptions the model [...]
You know you might have a problem or two when Amazon thinks this is a good selection for you…
(Click for larger version). It would be fun if other people would capture their recommendations and publish similar posts on their blogs.
You will play Gateway II. You will not use the walkthrough unless absolutely necessary. You will have fun.
It’s time to ditch the pay-as-you-go phones and get something nicer. This is my wishlist. If you know anything about mobile phones (in the US), I would be very grateful for suggestions.
I’m looking for a phone that can do 3G or otherwise high speed data (mostly for email and random [...]
Oh. I see that others share my unhealthy habits…
[…] But the economics profession for the past thirty years instead focused on producing stochastic calculus porn to satisfy young men’s urge for mathematical masturbation.
I think I might need a 12 step program. Anyone interested in a support group?
Sorry for the lack of posts. It’s more important to try to keep it real on midterms and, so far, that has been going well… Anyway, I just felt like popping back in to ask this question:
Which policy cannot be rationalized by a carefully picked mix of imperfect competition, real [...]
The dust is starting to settle (to some degree, in some sense, blah blah) and we’re now getting to see awesome posts. I’m willing to pay $700 billions for posts like these (don’t take me up on it, please):
What’s the worst thing about “the crisis”? The doomsday junkies, people who preach that the end is near regardless of circumstances or facts, who now feel vindicated and they’re vocal about it.
I just try to keep some perspective on things…
Uhh… we might be looking to a recession [...]
That’s one sexy title! One never dreams, as a child, to one day grow up and write something like this.
Anyway, proeminent heterodox figures complain that Applied General Equilibrium models (of the static, multisectorial kind, used in international trade and such) are never tested and that their predictions are never compared [...]
The latest NEP-DGE reads like a who’s who of macroeconomics (oh, well, of the kind of macroeconomics I like)…
The High Cross-Country Correlations of Prices and Interest Rates
Espen Henriksen, Finn Kydland, Roman Sustek
We document that, at business cycle frequencies, fluctuations in nominal variables, such as aggregate price levels and [...]
I’m cool with it, except for the fact that he’s still young and, caeteris paribus, this means that now some worthy people might die before getting it. (The Economics Nobels have stated late and now we have a backlog of awesome dudes and dudettes and so on…).
Michael Greinecker has [...]
Despite What Samuelson Said About Inflation in the 70s I still think that he’s awesome for a simple reason… Even if his views at one time were wrong (and they were, I guess), his work on economic theory laid the foundations (phun intended) for later developments which helped us [...]
Sometimes it’s not that bad to learn Microeconomics with a more “applied” focus (i.e. not as a footnote to Topology). For example, here’s a thought from today’s class… When, a few weeks ago, the South Carolina Attorney General threatened gas station owners with jail time for “price gouging”, the [...]
Here:
I just saw him, a couple of weeks ago, at our weekly seminar, discussing his work on the gender wage gap. His basic idea was that women with high market opportunities (potential high wage) also have high non-market opportunities so they are more likely to drop out of the [...]
OK, I’ll never make that mistake again… It’s like I was feeling myself getting dumber while watching. I think that most of my gains in the last 2 months or so of graduate school have been reversed.
The reason why I can’t get on this bandwagon, e.g. “the Fed spikes the punch bowl”, is because a spiked bowl will show first and foremost in the price level, inflation. Even if some of that extra money will go into assets, the increased inflation should leave the real [...]
OK, there’s this “financial meltdown” in the US and all the Old Keynesian, Pseudo-New Keynesians and closeted Keynesians are having a field day, quoting Keynes and salivating about activist policy, feeling vindicated.
Now, I happen to believe that they’re wrong in general and maybe wrong in this particular too, so the [...]
There are 19 days until the Oscars Nobels! My pick from last year was Jorgenson (Dale W.), neoclassical investment theory pioneer and productivity guru. I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with it…
I also think that Barro and Sargent are more than ready to get theirs.
Ta da! It’s here: Gabriel Paul Mihalache
Feedback is eagerly awaited, but there’s not much there so far.
YNS! and Michael G. have good ideas but I’d rather be less coy about it…
What caused the Industrial Revolution?
Fiscal competition. Just kidding. Maybe.
What is the proper size and scope of government?
It’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean.
How can heterogeneous production goods [...]
