Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Some Data, Much Sad

2 comments:

YouNotSneaky! said...

I would really like to see a time series of this, like by decade.

This is close:
http://www.columbia.edu/~xs23/WDI/incomeDistrAnimation_DRAFT_030924_.exe

but beware, the author is so neoclassical that you should get your garlic and cross first - though since this is "data" the usual arguments shouldn't apply though.

You can see all that matters - average growth of per capita income, changes in inequality (look at Mexico and Brazil), stagnation and population growth.

Robert Vienneau said...

I have looked at some of Sala-i-Martin's work before. He seems to have no awareness of the technical flaws in Solovian growth theory emphasized on this blog. And he seems ignorant of even bastard Keynesianism - e.g., countercyclical fiscal policy doesn't require governments to be particularly intelligent about the objects of their spending. Nor is it "commonly agreed" that others were not advocating spending on public works during a recession.

I do not see why I should suspend my distrust of Sala-i-Martin's ignorance and arrogance in his presentation of data. I might trust him on the mathematical properties of certain statistical techniques. But not on anything that requires any understanding of the world and of arguments about it.