4 ms·

Big max index is a fun thing. First time I read about it, it felt like a more intuitive and connected to the real world metric. Compared to other economic metri

Big max index is a fun thing. First time I read about it, it felt like a more intuitive and connected to the real world metric. Compared to other economic metrics that is. Then you live in the real world and realize it's not as good metric as you think it is. Recently when returning to Europe, after the start of the Ukraine war (+ inflation) a lot of my friends asked if food prices had also went up in Japan. I said yes but not as much as Europe. Price of wheat surely went up but everyone eats rice there, so except for bakeries (not many of them) most people didn't feel much. Bigmac index is not made or supposed to catch the difference in those details, but it seems like one of those economic metrics that are too often misused. When the "happiness" index said Finland was a the happiest place, the first one to burst out laughing about how silly it is was my dad, a Finnish guy. The legitimacy of an academic/scientific field can be somewhat roughly measured by how rigorous their measurement instruments and units are, and the conclusions the scientist try to make out of it.

gruez 2y ago
>Then you live in the real world and realize it's not as good metric as you think it is. >Recently when returning to Europe, after the start of the Ukraine war (+ inflation) a lot of my friends asked if food prices had also went up in Japan. I said yes but not as much as Europe. Price of wheat surely went up but everyone eats rice there, so except for bakeries (not many of them) most people didn't feel much. While it's true that europeans/americans eat wheat and asians eat rice, it's at best an incomplete explanation for why inflation was lower in japan than in the US. In the BLS CPI basket, "Cereals and bakery products" (not just wheat) only make up about 1/8th of the food category. The cost of flour is going to be a further fraction of that. >The legitimacy of an academic/scientific field can be somewhat roughly measured by how rigorous their measurement instruments and units are, and the conclusions the scientist try to make out of it. I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here. Are you trying to imply economics isn't rigorous? All the indices you mentioned are at best, are used informally. The world bank or the federal reserve isn't trying to measure inflation using big macs, for instance.
- NalNezumi 2y ago
  Maybe I should've been more clear by saying subfield? But yeah those metrics mentioned are at best used informally, yet I'm sure there's stilly subfields in economics that uses those to make silly conclusions, and publish it taking advantage of the prestige slamming "economics" on to it cause. Doesn't mean the entire field should be tarnished, but nonetheless it's a sign that there's a certain reluctance to enforce rigor that should be reflected on the field as a whole. Just mentioning that how they handle measuring can tell you a lot of the scientific field. Not every academic field deploy same rigor in the measurement, and stuff like that can cause funny example such as dead salmon fMRI study. When subfield that uses shoddy measurement start to take a bigger proportion of the published literature in that field, one ought to increase one's scepticism proportionally (such as certain subfields of psychology.)
- Two4 2y ago
  Economics as an academic field annoys me, because the academics often talk like it's not a normative science.

gruez 2y ago

>Then you live in the real world and realize it's not as good metric as you think it is. >Recently when returning to Europe, after the start of the Ukraine war (+ inflation) a lot of my friends asked if food prices had also went up in Japan. I said yes but not as much as Europe. Price of wheat surely went up but everyone eats rice there, so except for bakeries (not many of them) most people didn't feel much. While it's true that europeans/americans eat wheat and asians eat rice, it's at best an incomplete explanation for why inflation was lower in japan than in the US. In the BLS CPI basket, "Cereals and bakery products" (not just wheat) only make up about 1/8th of the food category. The cost of flour is going to be a further fraction of that. >The legitimacy of an academic/scientific field can be somewhat roughly measured by how rigorous their measurement instruments and units are, and the conclusions the scientist try to make out of it. I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here. Are you trying to imply economics isn't rigorous? All the indices you mentioned are at best, are used informally. The world bank or the federal reserve isn't trying to measure inflation using big macs, for instance.

NalNezumi 2y ago
Maybe I should've been more clear by saying subfield? But yeah those metrics mentioned are at best used informally, yet I'm sure there's stilly subfields in economics that uses those to make silly conclusions, and publish it taking advantage of the prestige slamming "economics" on to it cause. Doesn't mean the entire field should be tarnished, but nonetheless it's a sign that there's a certain reluctance to enforce rigor that should be reflected on the field as a whole. Just mentioning that how they handle measuring can tell you a lot of the scientific field. Not every academic field deploy same rigor in the measurement, and stuff like that can cause funny example such as dead salmon fMRI study. When subfield that uses shoddy measurement start to take a bigger proportion of the published literature in that field, one ought to increase one's scepticism proportionally (such as certain subfields of psychology.)
Two4 2y ago
Economics as an academic field annoys me, because the academics often talk like it's not a normative science.