Comments on: Average is Over

By: Shayne Cook

Shayne Cook — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 10:12:36 +0000

So, if I understand correctly, Tyler Cowen has an opinion on the magnitude and ubiquity of the Consumer Surplus created and accumulated during his “Great Stagnation” period, but he has no robust methodology of measurement upon which his opinion is based. He just has an opinion.

By: peterdub

peterdub — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 16:28:33 +0000

From my experience with Cowen’s books, the consumer deficit is large. The Amazon reviewers appear to agree.

By: Jonathan Bechtel

Jonathan Bechtel — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 13:50:33 +0000

I actually do think he’s brought it up on his blog, and he still has the opinion that it’s much smaller than people think it is.

I think the biggest point where I agree with him is that the ubiquity of information distributes its benefits unevenly due to the fact that its only as useful as someone’s capacity to comprehend it.

I don’t really draw any moral conclusions from it, but as an observation I think it’s important.

By: Shayne Cook

Shayne Cook — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 12:10:17 +0000

Has Tyler Cowen developed/proposed a robust methodology for measuring/estimating or even guessing at the magnitude and ubiquity of the Consumer Surplus created during the period he refers to as “The Great Stagnation”?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 18:39:29 +0000

I am more optimistic about the role for data analysis in macro, particularly with the rise of drill-down microdata available for macro research. Administrative data and big internet data can shed light on the nature of job markets, firm dynamics, and other things, and we can get an idea of how these things are changing over time. For me personally, studying this stuff has dramatically changed how I view the standard workhorse macro model, shifting my preferences toward something that more closely resembles a PSST view of the world. There is a lot going on beyond what the naive demand management macro story can consider. The simple representative agent, detrended cycle model that dominates the blogosphere and much of academia looks increasingly silly in light of all the things we can see going on in nuts and bolts and gears of the actual economy.