Reading the titles of the last two posts (the birth rate vs the growth rate and growth forecasts and government) I realised that neither rauparaha or myself defined what ‘growth’ we were talking about. Like all economists, we took ‘Growth’ to be synonymous with growth in gross domestic product. Could this possibly imply that economists …
Category Archive: Philosophy
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/02/19/the-economists-growth-bias/
Jan 25 2008
Ignoring costs and misrepresentation – People’s attitude to economists
One thing that gets to me is the fact that people from both sides of the political spectrum love to avoid costs. As economists pride themselves in discussing the opportunity cost associated with any given policy or action, we end up being attacked by both sides (Update: Including psychologists it seems. Dang I thought they …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/01/25/ignoring-costs-and-misrepresentation-%e2%80%93-peoples-attitude-to-economists/
Jan 23 2008
The moral high ground
Economists are often seen as cold and calculating by the public. I have personally been referred to as a ‘deranged sociopath’ for a post I made on this blog. Today’s post by Eliezer at Overcoming Bias (yeah, it’s my blog of the moment) reassures me that we economists really do have the moral high ground …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/01/23/the-moral-high-ground/
Jan 22 2008
The morality of discounting
There’s a showdown at Overcoming Bias between Eliezer and Robin over discount rates. Eliezer says, I’ve never been a fan of the notion that we should (normatively) have a discount rate in our pure preferences – as opposed to a pseudo-discount rate arising from monetary inflation, or from opportunity costs of other investments… If you …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/01/22/the-morality-of-discounting/
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