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
{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
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
This is a continuation of the previous post on Econometrics Versus Reality, which provided the philosophical background for the nominalist methodology of science underlying regression models. In this post, we will discuss a specific data set and illustrate the differences between a regression model and a real model (short for a model based on realist… Read More Regression vs Reality
This is the second in a sequence of lectures about regression models and methodology (for first lecture, on underlying philosophy of science, see: Flawed Foundations of Social Sciences). These regression models are central in econometrics. Current methodology underlying these models makes them completely useless for learning about the real world. To learn how and why, we… Read More Econometrics Versus Reality
{bit.ly/rsia10a} The central goal of this Lecture 10A on “Real Statistics: An Islamic Approach”, is to establish that standard methodologies currently in use in statistics/econometrics, particularly regression, are built on the wrong foundations, and incapable of generating knowledge. To understand WHY this is so, it is necessary to study the flawed philosophy of science used… Read More Flawed Foundations of Social Sciences
I reproduce below an excerpt from my paper on “Methodological Mistakes and Econometric Consequence“, which discusses how “specification searches” allow us to fit models conforming to any theory to any data set. Thus conventional econometric methodology can be used to prove anything at all. References in the excerpt can be obtained from the bibliography in… Read More Econometrics to Prove Everything!
The previous post (Realizing your career is a sham!) provides an intro and a link to the first hour of my interview/podcast with Jeff Epstein for his Activist MMT blog. This first hour was mostly biographical. The second hour of the podcast was concerned with conventional economics, MMT, and Islamic economics. Jeff provides a brief abstract… Read More MMT: East & West
