I am a big fan of US economist and academic Glenn Loury. He is smart, honest and well-articulated. He is also not afraid of an intellectual scrap if he stumbles upon one. He is an indispensable public commentator and intellectual whose ideas and influence go far beyond the confines of race, and associated social issues, in the US where he has staked his claim to fame and authority most comprehensively. Glenn has an impressive back-catalogue of writing and citations, but the best way to get a sense of him is by listening to his podcast the Glenn Show, which can be found on all the usual platforms. I am also a big fan of his co-conspirator, John McWorter, a US linguist and public intellectual, with whom Glenn runs a bi-weekly conversation on his podcast, and Q&A for paying subscribers. It is a must-listen. On this occasion, however, I want to recommend Glenn’s recent discussion with Larry Kotlikoff, a US academic economist, in which they discuss the economic policy ideas of the two candidates in the upcoming US presidential election ideas, and the US economy more generally. As the title of the podcast goes; if only we had an economist in the White House!
Read MoreI hope you’re enjoying the 2023 Chat-GPT advent calendar even if it is quite a deviation from the content normally posted here. Fret not, I will pepper the flow of advent stories with some economics, and a lookahead to markets next year.
I really enjoyed @EconTalker's conversation with @tylercowen, the founder of the most widely read economics blog out there, reminding us that there is still value in reading the grand old masters of economics. I enjoyed re-reading most of Keynes’ the General Theory for my essay on fiscal policy, and it was also fun to remind myself about Milton Friedman’s permanent-income-hypothesis for the essay on the life cycle hypothesis. But in reality, I fall foul of Tyler’s accusation of an economist who is probably not as well acquainted with the classics as I should be. I have read very little of Smith for example, I find Hayek very difficult to read, and as an economist interested in demographics, I also regret to say that I have only read few parts of Malthus in the primary versions. Fortunately for me and others, Tyler has made his new his new book—"GOAT" of economics—freely available, and I am looking forward to dig in over Christmas.
Read MoreDepending on the wording, a search on Google Scholar for papers and research on the link between macroeconomics and demographics yields anywhere between 20,000 and 100,000 results. This is an unhelpful start for someone looking to explore and understand the field. This essay aims to rectify this issue by tracing the origins of the life cycle hypothesis (LCH)—ground zero for linking macroeconomics and demographics—through a close inspection of the 1950s literature that gave birth to the theory. It is motivated by the idea that anyone who wishes to explore this topic needs to have a firm grasp of the original material. A lot can be said for getting the basics right, and this essay is an ode to that idea.
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