A recent EconTalk has John Quiggin, left-of-center author of Zombie Economics, discussing ideas with Russ Roberts, moderator and pro-market guy. Quiggin names his book such because he asserts that there are many economists clinging to ideas that have been thoroughly thrashed and should be discarded, yet they continue to emerge and thrive. Foreign Policy has a summary of Quiggin’s five most egregious “undead” ideas:
I'm an idea zombie
The Great Moderation: the idea that the period beginning in 1985 was one of unparalleled macroeconomic stability that could be expected to endure indefinitely.
The Efficient Markets Hypothesis: the idea that the prices generated by financial markets represent the best possible estimate of the value of any investment. (In the version most relevant to public policy, the efficient markets hypothesis states that it is impossible to outperform market valuations on the basis of any public information.)
Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE): the idea that macroeconomic analysis should not be concerned with observable realities like booms and slumps, but with the theoretical consequences of optimizing behavior by perfectly rational (or almost perfectly rational) consumers, firms, and workers.
The Trickle-Down Hypothesis: the idea that policies that benefit the wealthy will ultimately help everybody.
Privatization: the idea that nearly any function now undertaken by government could be done better by private firms.
Roberts certainly doesn’t agree with Quiggin’s overall assessment, though they do find much to agree on. This is a great EconTalk for those who think that economists all drink from the same cup.
Econ 300 students might listen to the part about the Efficient Markets Hypothesis and compare it to what Landsburg says in Chapter 9.
And, if you like the dead-undead econ riff, you might check out Todd Buchholz’s now-classic, New Ideas from Dead Economists.
