tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6976144462093297473.post1458354332406131098..comments2024-03-26T19:10:00.791-04:00Comments on West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more): “History of the memo”Josephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10760453165301871031noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6976144462093297473.post-40230396039165352882015-01-19T16:02:21.116-05:002015-01-19T16:02:21.116-05:00Mark:
This story interests me too, for a slightly...Mark:<br /><br />This story interests me too, for a slightly different reason, in that it illustrates what I perceive as a tendency among economists to smooth out the edges of a series of historical events and turn it into a simplified story, or a parable, or a "stylized fact" (as we say in social science).<br /><br />To me, the most revealing words in the above passage are when Krugman writes, "I love this story on multiple levels," as this always seems to be the case when economists tell stories of this sort: everything fits together just too perfectly.<br /><br />I'm not saying that Krugman's getting anything wrong here, there's just something about it that seems too tidy, perhaps because tidiness is such a clear goal here.Andrew Gelmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02715992780769751789noreply@blogger.com