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Larry Summers on the causes of secular stagnation

In an influential speech on November 8, 2013 at the IMF Annual Research Conference, Larry Summers suggested that slow economic growth in the years following the 2007–2008 financial crisis might be due to "secular stagnation" (a concept introduced in…
Marko Amnell
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Is complex analysis used in economics?

It's frequently useful in physics and engineering applications; are there any applications in theoretical economics? (If not, were there any attempts at incorporating CA that just never caught on?) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_analysis.
sirallen
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Is there a “runaway” threshold for Debt-to-GDP Ratio in the U.S.?

Last year, when Congress was debating the stimulus/relief packages, one Senator made a comment about the debt-to-GDP ratio and how we are approaching a point in that ratio that will have some major negative effects. What are these supposed effects?…
Jacob Jones
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What is the definition of "First Best", "Second Best", etc. in contract theory?

What is the definition of "First Best", "Second Best", etc. in contract theory? Especially, what is the difference between "First Best" in contract theory and "ex-post efficient" in mechanism design?
Joe Li
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Macroeconomics for Mathematicians

I'm coming from a math background (so my mind is set up for Definitions-Observation-Lemma-Proof frameworks) and looking for recommendations of a Macroeconomics textbook mainly devoted to growth models and foreign exchange rates. Any…
foreignvol
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What happens if the "control variables" are also endogenous?

I work in Political Economy, and a lot of the models include "innocent" control variables such as population, inequality, colonial legacy, etc. so that the author can claim unbiasedness on their independent variable of interest. But if any of these…
Heisenberg
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Current knowledge about the empirics of consumer theory

I would like to get up to speed on the current state of empirical work done to test the assumptions and predictions of consumer theory (think Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 6 of Mas-Colell et al.). Can anyone recommend a good survey or provide a brief…
Ubiquitous
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Why in most macro models technology is labor-augmenting?

Take Romer's advanced macro book as reference. In it the Solow model,the Ramsey model and the Diamond OLG all contain the fundamental $A_t$ variable representing technological progress. In all these models, technology affects only labor, that…
CarrKnight
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Are there Utility Monsters in Economics?

Economics, especially in the modern school is broadly influenced by the utilitarian concept of utility. More so since the labor theory of value has been broadly replaced by the theory of marginal utility. Additionally, perverse incentives are…
Jason Nichols
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Explaining mixed strategies for one-shot games

In the classic introduction to non-cooperative game theory, the mixed strategy for a player is taught as a distribution over strategy space for the player. The distribution essentially gives us the probabilities (say, discrete strategy set) with…
Bravo
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The supply and demand of Virtual Products

We know that the fundamental economic problem is scarce resources relative to unlimited wants. **Does this apply to apps and Ebooks?**They are essentially virtual products who have in theory have unlimited supply.
Surya Shyam
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Economics of Homelessness: Are housing prices to blame?

Lots has been written in terms of the social context of homelessness. Often attributing the causes due to mental illness, previous criminal activity and addiction. I've been wondering, how much of a role (if any) does home price or rent play into…
EconJohn
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Should I stay or should I quit?

Is there an economic theory of quitting an activity? A theory that weighs the investment costs put into something and the opportunity costs of pursuing it. I am aware of Fershtman and Gneezy Quitting in Tournaments paper that investigates the…
emeryville
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Contest: earliest written instance of economic thought

Following part 5 of @Lateral fractal answer to "Handy Hints for Committing to the Beta" on the meta "Have fun! No fun = No play. No play = No beta. I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel that a fresh private beta is like unwrapping an early…
Martin Van der Linden
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The relationship between the expenditure function and many others!

I dont understand the relationships between Hicksian demand, walrasian demand (marshallian), the expenditure function and the indirect utility function (including the value function V(b)). I have found this subject very difficult and cannot…
Arie
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