In previous posts/articles, I have argued that the fundamental problems at heart of economics lie in a hopeless methodology which is systematically incapable of reaching the truth; see How Economic Models Became Substitutes for Reality and The WHY of Crazy Models. This is also aligned with views of Tony Lawson and others who offer critical realism as… Read More Why Newton Matters?

TRADE WARS AFTER CORONAVIRUSEconomic, political and theoretical implicationsA webinar from the WEA Friday May 28, 2021.   5pm-7pm,  London Time.    LINK:  meet.google.com/nxr-ucuj-agf      1. WELCOME. Maria Alejandra Madi, Chair WEA Conference Programme 2. PRESENTATIONS America’s Trade Deficits: Blame U.S. Policies – Starting with Tax LawsKenneth E. AustinUniversity of Maryland The interplays of… Read More WEA WEBINAR THIS WEEK: TRADE WARS

TRADE WARS AFTER CORONAVIRUSEconomic, political and theoretical implicationsA webinar from the WEA Friday May 28, 2021.   5pm-7pm,  London Time.    LINK:  meet.google.com/nxr-ucuj-agf     1. WELCOME. Maria Alejandra Madi, Chair WEA Conference Programme 2. PRESENTATIONS America’s Trade Deficits: Blame U.S. Policies – Starting with Tax Laws Kenneth E. AustinUniversity of Maryland The interplays of… Read More WEA WEBINAR THIS WEEK: TRADE WARS AFTER CORONAVIRUS

Invited Lecture at Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, on 22 Apr 2021. ABSTRACT: A materialistic approach to life locates problems in external reality, and attempts to find technological, political, or economic solutions. This represents a misdiagnosis which makes cures impossible to find. The anthropocene was brought about by the spiritual stunting now widespread across the… Read More Becoming the Change You Want to See

The current vaccination scenario calls for a reflection on the conceptualization of underdevelopment as a process of dependency. Nowadays, to understand the big picture of the production and trade of vaccines, for instance, it is necessary to consider the analysis of the dynamics of the world-wide capitalist system. Indeed, the access to vaccines has put… Read More Vaccines and underdevelopment as dependency

{bit.ly/RSIA10A} In previous lectures (Causal Explanation of Autonomy & Invariance of Regression Relationships ), we have seen the essential importance of analyzing the causal structure of the variables under study via path diagrams. In this lecture, we study one aspect of this which creates serious problems for understanding and interpreting regression results. This is the problem… Read More Spurious Regressions

While the study of wicked problems is not new, there is a need to develop a broader understanding of its scope in policies under the paradigm of complexity. The origin of the term “wicked Problem” goes back to Rittel and Webber’s (1973) questioning of the validity of technical-scientific approaches in social policy and urban planning.… Read More WICKED PROBLEMS IN ECONOMIC POLICY

As discussed by Hoover in “Lost Causes”, the concept of causality was dropped from econometrics for many decades, although it is currently making a resurgence. Nonetheless the revolution launched by Judea Pearl in the 1990’s has not percolated to econometrics textbooks. As a result, satisfactory definitions of key concepts required to make sense of regression… Read More Causal Explanation of Autonomy & Invariance of Regression Relationships

Defining Feature of Real Econometrics: {bit.ly/RSIA10C} We can define “Real Econometrics” as being the search for causal relationships within a collection of variables. There exists an enormous amount of confusion about what exactly is a causal relationship. We will take a simple and practical approach, developed by Woodward in his book on “Making Things Happen”.… Read More Causal versus Positivist Econometrics

The term “science” represents a claim to universality, but modern social science is based on lessons from European historical experience. Why, then, does it claim to have universal application? In this paper, I suggest that Weber’s dictum that social science should be value free led to the concealment of Eurocentric values within an apparently objective… Read More The Puzzle of Western Social Science