Econometrics // Lecture 3: OLS and Goodness-Of-Fit (R-Squared)

This course will introduce key concepts, theories and methods from socioeconomics. The first part of the course, will deal with the main economic actors and how their interactions are governed. Markets are seen as sets of social institutions. Institutions shape how consumers, firms and other economic actors behave. While it is difficult to understand how novelty emerges, we can study the conditions that are conducive to innovation. We will review how economic performance, social progress and human wellbeing are measured and what progress has been made. In the second part of the course, we will study a specific macroeconomic model that accounts for biophysical boundaries and inequality.

First historical instances of colonialism such as the crusades are revisited. Then a lengthy account of the colonial experience of the Spanish Kingdom in South America and of the British Empire in India is given. The Indian case is illustrated with large amounts of archival materials from a colonial administrator. There the workings of the colonial bureaucracy and law and its (positive) achievements as well as the ignorance and arrogance of the external rulers are demonstrated. After narrating the Indian independence to some depth some recent colonial wars (Algeria, Vietnam, Congo, Angola) are briefly examined. In the end, the impact of colonialism on current, i.e. 1970s, (economic) international relations is discussed. The general tenor is that colonialism is a dysfunctional system. Still, agency is mostly placed with the empire rather than with the ruled.

La répartition du revenu est un sujet sensible, à cheval sur l’économie et la question sociale. Il existe une théorie à prétention scientifique qui en explique les bases: la rémunération selon la productivité marginale. Elle ne semble pas neutre socialement. Analysons en la validité sous l'angle théorique et l'angle empirique.

Eine erfolgreiche Wirtschaftstransformation hängt von einer Veränderung der ökonomischen Praktiken der Akteure ab. Die „Spirale transformativen Lernens“ identifiziert, welche Fähigkeiten dafür entscheidend sind.