Tag Archives: policy

The ordinary business of macroeconometric modeling: working on the MIT-Fed-Penn model (1964-1974)

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Beatrice

Against monetarism? In the early days of 1964, George Leland Bach, former dean of the Carnegie Business School and consultant to the Federal Reserve, arranged a meeting between the Board of Governors and 7 economists, including Stanford’s Ed Shaw, Yale’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged applied, computer, Econometrics, empirical, Fed, forecast, macroeconomics, MIT, policy, prediction, simulation | 1 Comment

How not to screw up your economic expertise: lessons from the Kennedy tax cut grandmaster, Walter Heller

Posted on February 20, 2017 by Beatrice

What is the “crisis in economic expertise” about? Trump’s decision to demote whoever might be nominated chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) from his cabinet has been interpreted as a final blow to a tough year – … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged expertise, macroeconomics, policy | 3 Comments

The problem with “economists-failed-to-predict-the-2008-crisis” macrodeath articles

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Beatrice

This week has delivered one more interesting batch of economics soul-searching posts. On Monday, the Bloomberg View editorial board has outlined its plans to make economics more of a science (by “tossing out” models that are “refuted by the observable world” … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cowles, Econometrics, financial crisis, forecast, Friedman, Klein, macroeconomics, policy, prediction | 4 Comments

Les économistes face à la défiance de la société civile: faut-il déclarer la guerre des nombres?

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Beatrice

Crise de confiance, crise de l’expertise, crise du nombre Les économistes sont au bord de la crise de nerf, prévient Anne-Laure Delatte, la directrice adjointe du CEPII. L’inquiétude était en effet palpable à l’American Economic Association, le rassemblement de plusieurs … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 0 EN FRANCAIS, data, expertise, facts, policy, quantification, statactivism | 1 Comment

The making of economic facts : a reading list

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Beatrice

That Donald Trump’s first presidential decisions included gagging the EPA,USDA and NASA, asking his advisors to provide “alternative facts” on inauguration attendance, and questioning the unemployment rate is raising serious concerns among economists. Mark Thoma and former BLS statistician Brent Moulton, among … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged crisis, data, expertise, facts, policy, quantification, reading list, statactivism | 5 Comments

Is there really an empirical turn in economics?

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Beatrice

Full paper here. Reposted from the INET blog. French translation here. The idea that economics has recently gone through an empirical turn –that it went from theory to data– is all over the place. Economists have been trumpeting this transformation … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged applied, computer, data, empirical, facts, John Bates Clark Medal, patrons, policy, quasi-experiments | 6 Comments

Phillips, Laffer and Gatsby: on economists obsessing about curves

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Beatrice

On Monday, if I make it through strikes, river floods, and tear gas, I’ll be taking a course on the Great Gatsby curve in Rennes. And as I scroll through some articles on the topic, I’m struck by an air … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Gatsby Curve, Laffer Curve, narrative, Phillips Curve, policy | 4 Comments