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30 sats \ 36 replies \ @Undisciplined 6 Aug \ parent \ on: Jeff Bezos’s Yacht: Driver of Economic Activity econ
Personally, I kind of like that we often look like dicks for trying to dissect tricky subjects that make normal people angry.
Willingness to entertain unpalatable views is my favorite trait that most economists share.
This is definitely a guilty pleasure of economists: being the "akshually" guy in the room
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I was thinking about our common modelling practice of dividing the population into "high types" and "low types".
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Yes, what are high types and what are low types? These classifications look suspiciously collectivist.
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It's a modeling gimmick to classify people into low skill and high skill groups, with the simple binary being chosen simply for mathematical convenience. It lets the model generate heterogeneity in outcomes such as high types getting degrees and low types not
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Another statistical modeling gimmick, huh? How are they working out for the people using the models?
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In terms of getting published I guess it's working out just fine
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Getting published? How is it doing on modeling reality? Or is it just a model constructed from previous data?
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It's not really a statistical technique. It helps work out simplified equilibrium conditions. If it helps, it's no worse of an assumption than the standard one-type assumption, which Austrians make all the time.
I think Austrians should take results from this kind of work as clues or hints as to what might be true. It's a lot easier to engage in deductive reasoning if you have a sense of the destination.
Oh, sometimes I get positive pleasure from pissing off progressive/lefty/collectivist/Marxist/socialist/communist/murderers. I like to see their red faces and animated motions, it is quite amusing.
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