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The superiority of economists | LARS P. SYLL
There are several reasons for the insularity of economics, most importantly the different epistemological cultures of the various social science disciplines and the power inequalities between them. First, the theory of action that comes with economists’ analytical style is hardly compatible with the basic premise of much of the human sciences, namely that social processes…
Truth and justice — things worth figting for | LARS P. SYLL
Truth and justice are the essential foundations of any legitimate political order—not merely moral abstractions. Deny truth, and you replace reason with power. Abandon justice, and you permit domination to thrive. This is vividly clear in Gaza and Ukraine, where truth and justice are shown to be not distant ideals but concrete conditions for peace.…
Ger lägre löner fler jobb? | LARS P. SYLL
Fackföreningsekonomen Daniel Lind och ekonomiprofessorn Lars Calmfors har under det senaste året haft en animerad diskussion om forskningen kring 'monopsoni' och 'lägstalöner' i Ekonomisk Debatt och Affärsvärlden. En central tvistefråga i diskussionen mellan Lind och Calmfors gäller lägstalönerna i Sverige. Lind hävdar att höjda lägstalöner inte med nödvändighet behöver leda till färre jobb. Han menar…
Marx and Keynes on the contradictions of capitalism | LARS P. SYLL
Each capitalist, Marx noted, has an ambiguous relation to the workers. On the one hand, she wants the workers she employs to have low wages, since that makes for high profits. On the other hand, she wants all other workers to have high wages, since that makes for high demand for her products. Although it is…
Does the use of models make economics a science? | LARS P. SYLL
Well, if we are to believe most mainstream economists, models are what make economics a science. Economics is uniquely model-oriented among the social sciences. This stems from its history, its emulation of natural sciences like physics, and its pursuit of universal, rigorous explanations based on minimal principles. Mainstream economists seek to explain social phenomena by…
Uncertainty, learning, and rational expectations | LARS P. SYLL
The rational expectations hypothesis presupposes — largely for reasons of internal consistency — that agents possess complete knowledge of all relevant probability distributions. When economists attempt to incorporate learning into these models, it is always in a very restricted sense. Nothing genuinely unanticipated ever occurs; instead, learning is reduced to a mechanical process of updating…
Confusing statistical fiction with reality | LARS P. SYLL
With the above cautions in mind, we may view each statistical analysis as a thought experiment in a fictional “small world” or “toy example” sharply restricted by its simplifying assumptions. The questions that motivated the study must be translated properly into this fictional world; statistical methods then answer the questions via mathematical deductions from the…
Econometrics — the hope that never came true | LARS P. SYLL
In 1958, with the publication of the twenty-fifth volume of Econometrica, Trygve Haavelmo assessed the role of econometrics in advancing economics. While he praised its ‘repair work’ and ‘clearing-up work,’ he also found reason for despair: We have found certain general principles which would seem to make good sense. Essentially, these principles are based on…
Keynes — a notable exception | LARS P. SYLL
The great difficulty in the social sciences (if we may presume to call them so) of applying scientific method, is that we have not yet established an agreed standard for the disproof of an hypothesis. Without the possibility of controlled experiment, we have to rely on interpretation of evidence, and interpretation involves judgement; we can…
The lure of identity politics | LARS P. SYLL
At the most fundamental level, my concern about the identity synthesis is not about the ways in which it has "gone too far." Rather, it is that the identity synthesis is, even at its best, likely to lead to a society that fundamentally violates my most fundamental values and my most ardent aspirations for the…
Economics education is broken — only a revolution can save it | LARS P. SYLL
Today, economics education has all but erased courses on the history of economic thought and economic methodology. This is not just an oversight -- it is an intellectual crisis. A discipline that fails to reflect on its own foundations, that neglects to question its methods and assumptions, is a discipline in decline. History and methodology…
Sweden’s turn to economic inequality | LARS P. SYLL
UBS Global Wealth Report 2025 reveals that Sweden — once a global beacon of equality — has now fallen to the far less enviable position of sixth place among the world’s most unequal countries in terms of wealth. How could things have gone so wrong for a country that, not so long ago, was seen…
The Road Not Taken | LARS P. SYLL
We heterodox economists, who have chosen the road less travelled, are acutely aware of its costs: fewer opportunities for ample research funding or positions at prestigious institutions. Yet, I suspect few of us truly regret our choice. One does not bargain with one's conscience. No amount of money or prestige can replace the profound satisfaction…
Jürgen Habermas on multiculturalism | LARS P. SYLL
Even if collective rights were compatible with the individualistic design of modern legal orders based on subjective rights, it would not make any sense to employ them for cultural survival projects enforced by state power. There cannot be a "preservation" of cultures in the same sense as most of us advocate the preservation of animals…
Friskolesystemet måste rivas, inte renoveras | LARS P. SYLL
Liberalerna säger sig vilja helrenovera friskolesystemet. Det är ett välkommet uppvaknande från ett parti som länge varit med och byggt upp system som nu knakar i fogarna ... Liberalerna har rätt i att dagens incitament leder helt fel. Det är alltför enkelt att spara in på kvalitet för att maximera vinsten. Men om deras helrenovering…
Axel Honneth’s objections to Adorno & Horkheimer | LARS P. SYLL
The influence of the basic themes of the philosophy of history on the social-theoretic argument of the Dialectic of Enlightenment is so strong that Adorno and Horkheimer cannot but comprehend the socially oppressed subject as a passive and intention-less victim of the same techniques of domination that are aimed at nature. It seems as if…
Why yours truly is not a Bayesian | LARS P. SYLL
Imagine you are a Bayesian turkey. You hold a nonzero prior belief in the hypothesis (H): People are nice vegetarians who would never eat a turkey. Every day I see the sun rise is further confirmation of this fact. Each day you survive and are not eaten constitutes new evidence (e). You dutifully update your…
Courage | LARS P. SYLL
In science, courage is to follow the motto of enlightenment and Kant’s dictum — Sapere Aude! To use your own understanding, having the courage to think for yourself and question ‘received opinion,’ authority or orthodoxy. In our daily lives, courage is a capability to confront fear, as when in front of the powerful and mighty, not…
Conversations in real-world economics | LARS P. SYLL
The interviews in this collection were conducted with prominent thinkers, such as Steve Keen, Herman Daly and Jayati Ghosh, with important things to say on areas of economy often neglected or distorted by mainstream economics. The subject matter ranges from ecological economics, through to development, methodology, conventions, finance, financialisation and banking. If you want to…
Fact and fiction in statistics | LARS P. SYLL
As has been long and widely emphasized in various terms ... frequentism and Bayesianism are incomplete both as learning theories and as philosophies of statistics, in the pragmatic sense that each alone are insufficient for all sound applications. Notably, causal justifications are the foundation for classical frequentism, which demands that all model constraints be deduced…
What MMT really is about | LARS P. SYLL
MMT is fundamentally a reaction to the way money is described in mainstream economic theory, where money is seen as something that people save by depositing it in banks, and which banks in turn can lend out by creating credit. Thus, the money creation by banks presupposes that private individuals save. But that idea is…
Hunting for causes | LARS P. SYLL
There are three fundamental differences between statistical and causal assumptions. First, statistical assumptions, even untested, are testable in principle, given sufficiently large sample and sufficiently fine measurements. Causal assumptions, in contrast, cannot be verified even in principle, unless one resorts to experimental control ... Second, statistical assumptions can be expressed in the familiar language of…
Habermas’ fundamental objections to Adorno & Horkheimer | LARS P. SYLL
The conflicting attitude towards Nietzsche is instructive. It indicates that the Dialectic of Enlightenment owes more to Nietzsche than just the strategy of a totalizing critique. It is still difficult to understand a certain carelessness in their treatment of, to put it quite blatantly, the achievements of Western rationalism. How can the two advocates of…
Best economics blogs and websites in 2025 | LARS P. SYLL
Mainstream economics has sadly made economics increasingly irrelevant to the understanding of the real world. Trying to contribute to making economics a more realist and relevant science, yours truly launched this blog in March 2011. Now, fourteen years later and with millions of page views, yours truly’s blog is ranked on Top 100 Economics Blogs…
Universalism vs woke tribalism | LARS P. SYLL
You may argue that theory is secondary: of course woke activists seek solidarity, justice, and progress. Their struggles against discrimination are animated by those ideas. But they fail to see that the theories they embrace subvert their own goals. Without universalism there is no argument against racism, merely a bunch of tribes jockeying for power.…
Keynes on the importance of ‘causal spread’ | LARS P. SYLL
No doubt exists that an entirely different subject has taken over control when it comes to education in scientific methodology in almost the entire field, namely statistics ... The value of the statistical regulatory system should of course not be questioned, but it should not be forgotten that other forms of reflection are also cultivated…
School as an emancipatory space | LARS P. SYLL
We live in an unequal society where inequality is increasing in many areas, especially regarding income and wealth. The differences in living conditions for different groups, in terms of class, ethnicity, and gender, are unacceptably large. In the world of education, family background still has a significant impact on pupils’ performance, and it becomes even…
Top 25 Heterodox Economics Books | LARS P. SYLL
Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867) Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Joseph Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development (1911) Nikolai Kondratiev, The Major Economic Cycles (1925) Gunnar Myrdal, The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory (1930) John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory (1936) Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (1944) Paul…
Marx’s theory of value and the ‘transformation problem’ | LARS P. SYLL
Few thinkers have had as profound an impact on the world as Karl Marx. Despite the century and a half since his death, his ideas remain highly relevant. A topic that often surfaces when discussing Marx’s seminal economic work -- Capital -- is the so-called 'transformation problem.' An online debate has recently emerged regarding how…
Those damn murderers | LARS P. SYLL
Day after day, the Israeli regime reveals its brutal face as starving children become deliberate targets. For over 75 years, Israel has pursued a policy marked by systematic displacement and colonisation. Palestinian families have been driven from their homes, their land confiscated, and their future stifled under the iron grip of occupation. What remains are…
Multiculturalism | LARS P. SYLL
When a liberal society faces the question of granting special privileges, immunities, and political autonomy to one cultural group ... it cannot compromise on fundamental human rights. Furthermore, those who understand liberal democracy as itself a way of life grounded in a distinct moral faith cannot in good conscience agree to allow schools or the government…
Debunking mainstream economics | LARS P. SYLL
An economic theory that does not go beyond proving theorems and conditional ‘if-then’ statements — and does not make assertions and put forward hypotheses about real-world individuals and institutions — is of little consequence for anyone wanting to use theories to better understand, explain or predict real-world phenomena. Building theories and models on patently ridiculous…