- Oct 2020
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www.wesjones.com www.wesjones.com
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Weber notes that according to any economic theory that posited man as a rational profit-maximizer, raising the piece-work rate should increase labor productivity. But in fact, in many traditional peasant communities, raising the piece-work rate actually had the opposite effect of lowering labor productivity: at the higher rate, a peasant accustomed to earning two and one-half marks per day found he could earn the same amount by working less, and did so because he valued leisure more than income. The choices of leisure over income, or of the militaristic life of the Spartan hoplite over the wealth of the Athenian trader, or even the ascetic life of the early capitalist entrepreneur over that of a traditional leisured aristocrat, cannot possibly be explained by the impersonal working of material forces,
Science could learn something from this. Science is too far focused on the idealized positive outcomes that it isn't paying attention to the negative outcomes and using that to better define its outline or overall shape. We need to define a scientific opportunity cost and apply it to the negative side of research to better understand and define what we're searching for.
Of course, how can we define a new scientific method (or amend/extend it) to better take into account negative results--particularly in an age when so many results aren't even reproducible?
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psyarxiv.com psyarxiv.com
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MacFarlane, Douglas, Li Qian Tay, Mark J. Hurlstone, and Ullrich Ecker. ‘Refuting Spurious COVID-19 Treatment Claims Reduces Demand and Misinformation Sharing’, 30 September 2020. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/q3mkd.
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- Aug 2020
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www.nber.org www.nber.org
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McLaughlin, Patrick A, and Casey B Mulligan. ‘Three Myths about Federal Regulation’. Working Paper. Working Paper Series. National Bureau of Economic Research, May 2020. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27233.
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