The accidental “fact”

October 24, 2007 9:01 am

Greg Mankiw has a fun post about how "facts" gradually appear; in this case, Robert Reich is his target:

In short, here is what appears to have happened:

  1. Gabaix and Landier make a modelling assumption for purposes of analytic convenience.
  2. I describe their model and its implications on this blog.
  3. Wessel quotes part of that description in the Journal.
  4. Reich reads the Journal and cites me as an authority using the partial quotation.
  5. As a result, a modelling assumption morphs into an established fact.

You might call that data-free empirics.

Professor Mankiw is also the founder of the Pigou Club. He signed me up without asking, but secretly I am pleased.

Posted in Everyday economics |
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