A pre-election roundtable of a politically diverse group of noted economic theorists exploring their philosophical convergences and divergences.
Free and open to the public.
All Helix Center events are free and open to the public, including this one!
Roundtables are streamed live our website and the recording remains available after the event events.
This is a past event that happened on Saturday, October 13th 2:30 - 4:30PM.
Participants
Graciela Chichilnisky
Professor of Economics, Columbia University
Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky (www.chichilnisky.com) is a professor of Economics and Mathematical Statistics and a University Senator at Columbia University in New York, where she is the Director of the Columbia Consortium for Risk Management (CCRM). A world-renowned economist, she is the creator of the formal theory of Sustainable Development and acted as Lead US Author... read more! »
Robert H. Frank
Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics, Cornell University
Robert H. Frank is the HJ Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Cornell’s Johnson School of Management. His “Economic View” column has appeared in The New York Times since 2005. He received his B.S. in mathematics from Georgia Tech, then taught math and science for two years as a Peace Corps... read more! »
Jeffrey Miron
Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Economics, Harvard University
Jeffrey Miron is Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Dr. Miron has previously served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and Boston University; at the latter, he was Department chairman for six years. He has been the... read more! »
Joseph Salerno
Professor of Economics, Lubin School of Business, Pace University
Joseph T. Salerno received his Ph.D. in economics from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He is a professor of economics in the Finance and Graduate Economics Department in the Lubin School of Business of Pace University in New York. He is the editor of theQuarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and the Academic Vice President of the... read more! »
As Jeffrey Miron said at “Why Do Economists Disagree?”,
because economists cannot do repeatable and controlled
experiments, there is a problem knowing which economists
and models are right and which are wrong.
Might there be an alternative way to evaluate economists?
Applying the old maxim “if you’re so smart why aren’t you rich”,
no matter what policies are put in place, an economist should
be able to place a bet (in a real or simulated market) that
will make (or lose) money if they can predict the consequences
of that policy.
For example, if one can predict the change in interest rates
due to a particular policy, they can buy or sell US treasury
notes and make (or lose) money either way. Or if they think
a monetary policy will lead to inflation (or deflation) they
can make bets that will benefit by that. After a decade or
so we would know which economist is right by who has the
most money (real or simulated).