[OPE-L:6199] Re: Re: Re: Fw: econometrics

From: Michael Perelman (michael@ECST.CSUCHICO.EDU)
Date: Sun Nov 18 2001 - 23:59:44 EST


Sorry, that address was for an article of mine.  It now contains the
e-mail.  Sorry.

On Sun, Nov 18, 2001 at 11:37:11PM -0500, Allin Cottrell wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Nov 2001, michael perelman wrote:
> 
> > I tried to show one of the problems with Marxian econometrics.
> >
> > www.ucm.es/wwwboard/bas/messages/246.htm
> 
> Eh?  This is Spanish-language get-rich-quick Internet spam.  What is
> the relevance?
> 
> Like Patrick, I think econometrics is not really optional.  In the
> broad sense (that used by the founders of the Econometric Society in
> the 1930s) econometrics is simply quantitative economic analysis.  In
> the somewhat narrower sense that the term 'econometrics' has acquired
> since WWII, it is quantitative analysis based on probability theory,
> or more specifically the theory of statistical inference as elaborated
> by Bayes, Neyman and Pearson, and R.A. Fisher (there are differences
> between these three approaches but modern econometrics comprises them
> all).  I don't say that these theories are beyond question, but in the
> last half-century nobody has proposed any alternative paradigm for
> testing/quantifying theory against non-experimental data.  They are,
> collectively, the only game in town.
> 
> I don't see any inherent connection between neoclassical economic
> theory and econometrics.  They just "happen to go together" in that
> neoclassical theory has been dominant in the period since econometrics
> came to maturity; it has therefore provided most of the hypotheses
> that econometricians have wanted to test.
> 
> Jerry mentioned some "other approaches" to quantitative analysis,
> including input-output analysis and "chaos theory".  These are of
> interest but they are not in competition with econometrics; they are
> both theoretical frameworks rather than methodologies for empirical
> analysis as such.
> 
> Allin Cottrell.
> 

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu



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