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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“For some queer and deplorable reason most human beings are more impressed by words than by figures, to the great disadvantage of mankind.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Jan Tinbergen. "The necessity of quantitative social research." Sankhyā: The Indian Journal of Statistics, Series B (1973): 141-148.

“It is my hope that in such a way we may again, as Marx claimed, find scientific arguments in the competition between various systems, but up-to-date scientific arguments rather than obsolete ones. This more fundamental research in economics deserves relatively more attention and resources than the more superficial versions of economic research directed at forecasting or analysing very short-term fluctuations in market prices, on which quite some money is being spent to-day.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

"The Use of Models: Experience," 1969

“An inequality-furthering phenomenon is technological development. But need it be? Increasingly we get the feeling that technological development is not simply something given, but that it may be guided, within limits.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: Income Distribution (1975), p. 61; Cited in: Acemoglu (2000, p. 31)

“What matters is the di¤erence between qualities available and qualities required by the demand side, that is by the organization of production.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: Income Distribution (1975), p. 15; Cited in: Acemoglu, Daron. Technical change, inequality, and the labor market. No. w7800. National bureau of economic research, 2000. p. 11

“Educational policies deserve to be programmed not only with a view to improving education in the widest sense, but also in order to ináuence the income distribution.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: Income Distribution (1975), p. 148

“It is also our hope that the interpretation of the socio-economic optimum as a set of institutions may help to get under way a discussion of a more scientific character than was usual so far about the relative merits of various existing socio-economic orders, especially those of Eastern and Western Europe, including such interesting cases as Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. A considerable amount of better information about various types of external effects will be one of the necessary ingredients if we want to give concrete content to such merit rating of various systems.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

"The Use of Models: Experience," 1969

“To Ehrenfest I owe a great deal. I studied physics at a time when a number of fascinating persons were there together. Ehrenfest would not instruct as such, as he preferred dialogue. Thanks to him I could participate in discussions with Albert Einstein. Also Kamerling Onnes, Lorentz and Zeeman were present. Being a student in the hands of such teachers, you are very fortunate indeed.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: NRC-Handelsblad in 1987; as quoted in: Jan Tinbergen http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Tinbergen.html at MacTutor History of Mathematics, 2009: Quote about one of his teachers at the University of Leiden

“The main sources of tension in today's world economy could be grouped under the following categories:
(i) the underdevelopment of a large part of world
(ii) competition between different economic systems
(iii) the passing of colonialism
(iv) economic instability, especially in primary markets, and
(v) national shortsightedness, especially in trade policy”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: Shaping the world economy, 1962, p. 91

“The factor of distance may also stand for an index of information about export markets.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: Shaping the world economy, 1962, p. 263

“The central question of economic policy is the question of the effectiveness of its various instruments.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: Income Distribution (1975), p. 53

“First of all I want to remind you of the essential features of models. In my opinion they are: (i) drawing up a list of the variables to be considered; (ii) drawing up a list of the equations or relations the variables have to obey and (iii) testing the validity of the equations, which implies the estimation of their coefficients, if any. As a consequence of especially (iii) we may have to revise (i) and (ii) so as to arrive at a satisfactory degree of realism of the theory embodied in the model. Then, the model may be used for various purposes, that is, for the solution of various problems. The advantages of models are, on one hand, that they force us to present a "complete" theory by which I mean a theory taking into account all relevant phenomena and relations and, on the other hand, the confrontation with observation, that is, reality. Of course these remarks are far from new.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

"The Use of Models: Experience," 1969

“The world is in a process of a great transformation. In a considerable part of it a new economic order, "communism," is being vigorously tried out. Elsewhere an old order is passing as one country after another throws of the yoke of colonialism. The wholesale introduction of Western techniques and ways of life shaking the foundations of numerous beliefs and attitudes, for good and for evil.”

Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994) Dutch economist

Source: Shaping the world economy, 1962, p. 3 : Lead in paragraph "introducing the book"

“I see a tremendous amount of intricacy in the world and we have probably only begun to scratch at the surface of its intricacy.”

Roy J. Glauber (1925–2018) American theoretical physicist

Roy J. Glauber - Science Video Interview http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/125, interviewed by Edward Goldwyn (2006)

“"Shall we do it?" "Well, then let's go, we shall do it!" Otto Stern asking, Walther Gerlach answering.”

Otto Stern (1888–1969) German physicist

As quoted in The Historical Development of Quantum Theory: Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties, 1900-1925 (2001) by Jagdish Mehra, p. 437.
Attributed

“A simple calculation shows that from the classical theory follows that we should find a broadening of the beam with the maximum intensity on the place of the beam without field. However, from the quantum theory follows that we should find there no intensity at all, and deflected molecules on both sides. The beam should split up in two beams corresponding to the two orientations of the magnet. The experiment decided in favor of the quantum theory.”

Otto Stern (1888–1969) German physicist

the conclusion of the historical Stern-Gerlach experiment, in The Method of Molecular Rays http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1943/stern-lecture.html, Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1946.

“We are far from understanding how to achieve adaptively efficient economies because allocative efficiency and adaptive efficiency may not always be consistent. Allocatively efficient rules would make today's firms and decisions secure - but frequently at the expense of the creative destruction process that Schumpeter had in mind.”

Douglass C. North (1920–2015) American Economist

Source: Institutions (1990), p. 81; Ch. 9 : Organizations, learning, and institutional change

“In some respects this is intended to be a revolutionary book, but in other respects it is very traditional indeed. It is revolutionary in that we have developed a comprehensive analytical framework to examine and explain the rise of the Western world; a framework consistent with and complementary to standard neoclassical economic theory.”

Douglass C. North (1920–2015) American Economist

Source: The rise of the western world, 1973, p. vii, Preface

“Regarding social order, Fukuyama writes, "The systematic study of how order, and thus social capital, can emerge in spontaneous and decentralized fashion is one of the most important intellectual developments of the late twentieth century." He correctly attributes the modern origins of this argument to F. A. Hayek, whose pioneering contributions to cognitive science, the study of cultural evolution, and the dynamics of social change put him in the forefront of the most creative scholars of the 20th century. But Hayek's views about the "spontaneity" of social order remain controversial. In their extreme form, they imply that all deliberate efforts to manipulate social order — social engineering — are doomed to failure because the complex nature of our cultural heritage makes a complete understanding of the human condition impossible.
Hayek was certainly correct that we have, at best, a very imperfect understanding of the human landscape, but "spontaneous" it is not. What distinguishes human evolution from the Darwinian model is the intentionality of the players. The mechanism of variation in evolutionary theory (mutation) is not informed by beliefs about eventual consequences. In contrast, human evolution is guided by the perceptions of the players; their choices (decisions) are made in the light of the theories the actors have, which provide expectations about outcomes.”

Douglass C. North (1920–2015) American Economist

Douglass North in "Orders of the Day" in Reason (November 1999) http://reason.com/archives/1999/11/01/orders-of-the-day, a review of The Great Disruption : Human Nature and the Reconstruction of Social Order (1999) by Francis Fukuyama

“Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interactions. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, tradition, and code of conduct) and formal rules”

Douglass C. North (1920–2015) American Economist

constitutions, laws, property rights
Source: Institutions (1990), p. 97; As cited in: Oliver E. Williamson (1996) The Mechanisms of Governance. p. 4

“Specialization in this world is rudimentary and self-sufficiency characterizes most individual households”

Douglass C. North (1920–2015) American Economist

Source: Institutions (1990), p. 119