Paul Pfleiderer on the Misuse of Economic Models

Paul Pfleiderer, C.O.G. Miller Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his recent paper critiquing what Pfleiderer calls "Chameleon Models," economic models that are thought to explain the real world with little analysis of the accuracy of their assumptions. Also discussed are Akerlof's market for lemons model, Friedman's idea that assumptions do not have to be reasonable as long as the model predicts what happens in the real world, and the dangers of leaping from a model's results to making policy recommendations.

You can listen to Paul Pfleiderer on the Misuse of Economic Models online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Paul Pfleiderer on the Misuse of Economic Models is an episode from EconTalk Archives, 2014 by Library of Economics and Liberty.

This episode is 1:00:32 long.

This episode was published on Sep 8, 2014.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from EconTalk Archives, 2014 when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.