Free exchange. Political Economy - The Washington Post's blog on politics, policy and the economy. Econbrowser. Front Page | vox. Geo-Graphics. Capitalist Counsel. Yglesias » Economics and Incentives. By Matthew Yglesias on January 11, 2011 at 4:31 pm "Economics and Incentives" I find it very unlikely that whether or not economists adopt a professional code of ethics is a big deal in the scheme of things, but Lant Pritchett’s furious objections to the idea are entertaining: [O]nce we as economists abandon the idea (even if it is only a useful fiction) that people’s ideas, arguments, and evidence should be evaluated on the premise they are sincere claims by sincere members of the community of discourse (at least until proven otherwise) in favour of a notion that we must first examine each person’s “bias” we are on a slippery slope into an ugly mud puddle.
Why single out the “financial services” industry? It’s kind of amazing how if I were to say “I think people respond to incentives” that would be banal (especially amongst a group of economists) but if you accuse a particular person of being subject to this mechanism, suddenly you’re history’s greatest monster. Unemployment Has Doubled: Ratio Increases by State, Surprisingly Consistent. « Rortybomb.
Ryan Avent, reporting live from the AEA meeting, mentions a panel where Robert Shimer gives an excellent overview of the labor market (my bold): Rob Shimer, who’s well known for his work on labour markets, offered additional thoughts on the employment situation, beginning by laying out a few key labour market facts. Take any given group within the labour force, and the crisis has essentially generated a doubling of the unemployment rate. Turnover among the unemployed has also been quite low since the initial decline.
It hasn’t been a slump in which many different groups rotate through joblessness; instead a lump of labour fell into unemployment and has struggled to return to the work force. That’s a great way to phrase it. This plays out at the state level. I very much doubt that, and the video linked to by Rajan doesn’t mention 6.5%, and I don’t see a working paper anywhere that quantifies that. But let’s just say that Nevada is uniquely messed up. (Source.) Like this: Like Loading...