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koganbotAlways meaning to post more, and also need to comment on a shitload of things (three Mark Sinker threads need more input from me — Inuit tech, Oasis, hallway-classroom [UPDATE: Sinker links added] — not to mention what I owe Mark behind the scenes). In the meantime, here are links to four five blogposts from Paul Krugman on the use of models. Krugman's saying that to understand anything about economies you have to make simplifying assumptions, simpler often being better as long as (1) the models still tell you something useful and (2) you know when life is telling you to turn 'em off or rethink 'em. Subtheme is that, according to Krugman, many conservatives do this absolutely backwards, that is, refuse to turn off the microeconomics model as the supposed source from which all macroeconomics must derive, while at the same time decrying macroeconomic models that could save billions of people suffering and millions of lives if policy makers would act on them.
Dare To Be Silly
Too Much Faith In Models, Capital Taxation Division
Economic Realism (Wonkish)
Jean Tirole and the Triumph of Calculated Silliness
The State of Macro, Six Years Later [UPDATE: Added this link here (it's the "Subtheme" link above) because Krugman states his concerns more emphatically than he had in his previous post]
The New Economic Geography, Now Middle-Aged [UPDATE: Added this link here, and here's where I originally discussed it]
Also, there was this, from me:
Neither rational nor irrational
The discussion with Mark, if I ever have time for it, would include my own justification for my simplifying assumptions (hallway-classroom, for instance; also, the Rolling Stones and call-and-response, also jocks-burnouts-and-sometimes-freaks) and where he and I need to create more of them.
Dare To Be Silly
Too Much Faith In Models, Capital Taxation Division
Economic Realism (Wonkish)
Jean Tirole and the Triumph of Calculated Silliness
The State of Macro, Six Years Later [UPDATE: Added this link here (it's the "Subtheme" link above) because Krugman states his concerns more emphatically than he had in his previous post]
The New Economic Geography, Now Middle-Aged [UPDATE: Added this link here, and here's where I originally discussed it]
Also, there was this, from me:
Neither rational nor irrational
The discussion with Mark, if I ever have time for it, would include my own justification for my simplifying assumptions (hallway-classroom, for instance; also, the Rolling Stones and call-and-response, also jocks-burnouts-and-sometimes-freaks) and where he and I need to create more of them.
