Tag Archives: policy-making

The case against stabilization policy — why is the discussion in the U.S. often so different from Europe?

The case for (and against certain types of) stabilization policy is a highly disputed issue. This is at least the case in the U.S. but applies to a certain fraction of European economists — this blog is a nice example. If you need another example, just have a look a the new manifesto published by the "old" Keynesian (in the terminology of an JEP’s article by James Tobin on differences between "new" and "old" Keynesians, in terms of freshness of his ideas Solow seems to be as young as he ever was) Robert Solow and some European fellows, see the link here. Even under my qualifications however, it is justified to claim that the debate is much more alive in the U.S. — not among the mainstream of European economist.

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Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali: A Reply to Ester Faia and Ignazio Angeloni

In a recent post, Ester Faia and Ignazio Angeloni express their astonishment about the fact that in an environment of low inflation rates, stable growth in a overwhelming number of countries, sound monetary and rapidly improving fiscal policies, market deregulation, globalization and — as as I personally would add — under the usage of these beautiful micro-founded macroeconomic models effectively in place in most modern central banks, a financial crisis of such a proportion can arise.

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Thesen von Akerlof und Hans-Werner Sinn zusammen in einer Handelsblatt-Ausgabe

In der gestrigen Online-Handelsblattausgabe stehen im Header ein Artikel über die Thesen des Nobelpreisträgers George A. Akerlof und ein Interview mit Hans-Werner Sinn einträchtig nebeneinander. Das wäre nicht weiter berichtenswert, wenn nicht durch das Lesen des Artikels und des Interviews die volle Bandbreite der Herangehensweise der ökonomischen Beratungsprofession deutlich würde.

Während Akerlofs “Presidential Address” gerade in der AER veröffentlicht wurde und er darin einen Rückbezug der ökonomischen Theorie hin zu einer sozialwissenschaftlichen Fundierung fordert und damit die “social norms” in den Prozess der Beratung gerade (wieder) hineinholen will, gehen die Aussagen von Sinn m. E. in eine andere Richtung. Beispiel:

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