Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Hahn On Regression In Macroeconomics

One can find many amusing quotes from such as Frank Hahn and Robert Solow on trends in macroeconomics after Robert Lucas. I get this one second-hand:
"One should now ask how the present mess came into being. For macroeconomics today is in a state which astronomy would be if Ptolemaic theory once again came to dominate the field. There can be few instances in other disciplines of such a determined turning back of the clock. A great deal of what is written today as well as the policy recommendations which have been made would be thoroughly at home in the twenties. So something needs explaining and I hope that some good intellectual historian will attempt to do so soon." -- Frank Hahn (1985) (as quoted in Philip Mirowski's More Heat Than Light, p. 411).
Do I need to note some economists today would still find Hahn's opinion apposite?

3 comments:

Bruce said...

Of course, this modification to the quote is true as well:

"A great deal of what is written today as well as the policy recommendations which have been made would be thoroughly at home in the thirties."

Robert Vienneau said...

Maybe the second time will be farce. But some are already in no shape to laugh.

Tomboktu said...

Not a quote, but the bits of economic theory that I have read remind me of one of the doctors in The Madness of King George who believes that examining the firmness of the contents of the king's chamber pot will give the key insight to his health.