Franco Modigliani: Quotes about people

Franco Modigliani was Italian-American economist. Explore interesting quotes on people.
Franco Modigliani: 10 quotes0 likes

“I believe people can solve complex problems eventually. By repeated trial and error they will get there; but they need a long time. At this point I agree with Herbert Simon. People do not learn immediately, as those rational expectations models seem to imply. I don't believe that.
The statement that assumptions do not matter is nonsense. It is funny. Yes, I assume people are consistent in their behavior. I assume that not because I believe everybody actually is, but because I believe, on the average, you do not get too far from it.”

Franco Modigliani

Conversations with Economists (1983)

“A situation where people can grow old without having a job that rewards them individually while adding to the collective well-being is morally unacceptable.”

Franco Modigliani

Franco Modigliani (2001) Adventures of an economist, p. 41.

“Macro rational expectations, as I have labeled the hypothesis, seems to say that expectations in an economist's model must be perfectly consistent with his model that embodies these expectations. In other words, the agents of his model must all share his views of the relevant economic mechanisms, as well as his data. Why? Because if he holds them they must believe they are God's truth and, if so, rational people can have no other views (and of course we should never ask how they would come by these views and data, that not even other specialists may have heard of yet, let alone accepted). I submit that this view is pretty absurd--I would almost say offensive! I certainly believe that I know more about economics and the economy than (almost) everybody else, and i can even prove it: If everybody shared my vies, then the economy could not be in today's troubles”

Franco Modigliani

though it might conceivably be in some different ones!
Conversations with Economists (1983)