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Comments on: Math, reading, and purpose http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2013/08/23/math-reading-and-purpose/ The Visible Hand in Economics Mon, 02 Sep 2013 08:02:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: In defence of simplistic models | The Dismal Science http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2013/08/23/math-reading-and-purpose/#comment-42074 Mon, 02 Sep 2013 08:02:34 +0000 http://www.tvhe.co.nz/?p=9592#comment-42074 […] discussions about the role of maths in economics (Matt has a good summary with the relevant links here), but is actually response to a comment by Chris B over at SciBlogs to my initialpost on Labour’s […]

]]> By: Matt Nolan http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2013/08/23/math-reading-and-purpose/#comment-41978 Fri, 23 Aug 2013 19:29:00 +0000 http://www.tvhe.co.nz/?p=9592#comment-41978 In reply to jamesz.

“Economists know that and just don’t have anything better yet, but that
shouldn’t be a reason to pretend the weaknesses don’t exist.”

Indeed – but I did not interpret the post as just saying this, it appeared to be saying that the use of maths led to this type of outcome. But this isn’t a flaw with the use of maths, this is a flaw with analysts in general – and I fear that even if we pulled the maths out, we would end up with even worse tacit assumptions. That was the point I was trying, poorly, to make 🙂

]]> By: jamesz http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2013/08/23/math-reading-and-purpose/#comment-41977 Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:23:00 +0000 http://www.tvhe.co.nz/?p=9592#comment-41977 I agreed with Noah and I don’t think it has anything to do with maths. It’s about the core assumptions of choice theory and maximisation being empirically falsified. Which they have been. If your macro theory fits the stylised facts but your microfoundations are empirically false then your model is a poor structural representation of the world. Economists know that and just don’t have anything better yet, but that shouldn’t be a reason to pretend the weaknesses don’t exist.

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