Alberto Alesina
Autor de The Size of Nations
Sobre El Autor
Alberto Alesina is Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy and currently Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University Edward L. Glaeser is Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Obras de Alberto Alesina
Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference (Rodolfo DeBenedetti Lectures) (2004) 47 copias
Partisan Politics, Divided Government, and the Economy (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions) (1995) 12 copias
Politics and Economics in the Eighties (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report) (1991) 7 copias
Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report) (2013) 5 copias
On the origins of gender roles 1 copia
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Género
- male
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Autores relacionados
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 18
- Miembros
- 250
- Popularidad
- #91,401
- Valoración
- 3.5
- Reseñas
- 3
- ISBNs
- 52
- Idiomas
- 3
However, historical analyses are unfortunately overshadowed by mathematical modeling in all the other chapters. The authors believe that the tradeoff can be used to 'explain' various aspects of state size. They derive a large set of mathematical equations which supposedly describe their relationships formally. However, the simplifications and assumptions behind the equations are extremely unrealistic, and consequently the derivations become vacuous formal exercises which yield absolutely no information of interest. I can't believe that professional academics waste their time, and fill their books, with such utterly pointless work.
Of course models are idealizations and they can be informative even if they don't correspond exactly to reality, as the authors note in defence of their method. But come on, sociology and history have limits where further abstraction becomes counterproductive. The authors probably crossed these limits so long ago, and are now so far beyond them, that they no longer remember where they lie. The benefits and drawbacks of small and large states are interesting topics for a historical discussion, and maybe a philosophical one as well. But it is simply not a good subject for mathematical analysis. That much quickly becomes clear to readers of this book, if not to its authors.… (más)