Comments on: Efficient Economist’s Pledge

By: Overcoming Bias : Efficient Isn’t Moral

Overcoming Bias : Efficient Isn’t Moral — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:36:28 +0000

[...] it is important to clarify: As an analysis tool, economic efficiency is designed and well-suited to finding win-win deals that [added: tend to] get us all more of what [...]

By: First Principles – Response to Seth « Incessant Dissent

First Principles – Response to Seth « Incessant Dissent — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:33:41 +0000

[...] disagree with both Seth and Prof. Hanson when the later writes Liberty is a fine heuristic, but efficiency is more what I want, so I’m willing to consider sometimes violating your liberty axiom. Like [...]

By: Those who can’t do and those who can’t teach « Entitled to an Opinion

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:30:47 +0000

[...] The old way of negotiating in boardrooms seems to share the ideals behind Robin Hanson’s Efficient Economist’s Pledge and so it may have been to the advantage of firms to set up a structure in which there was mutual [...]

By: Overcoming Bias : Minimal Morals

Overcoming Bias : Minimal Morals — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:17:49 +0000

[...] is that outcome moral goodness is increasing in how much each person wants that outcome. Economic efficiency then follows by the usual arguments of Pareto [...]

By: Overcoming Bias : Reply to Wilkinson

Overcoming Bias : Reply to Wilkinson — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:09:17 +0000

[...] be both.) To decide which acts should be taxed or subsidized, I use the usual economists’ efficiency criteria to rank policies. Call me morally naive, but this seems a good guide to [...]

By: Tim Tyler

Tim Tyler — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:57:23 +0000

Re: For individual clients, I suggest actions that try to best get them what they want.

This doesn’t sound efficient – it sounds partisan.

By: sternhammer

sternhammer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:43:44 +0000

I think I agree with all the principles in it.

Robin could you explain more about your purpose in writing it? Who are you trying to persuade to do what?

Is it to get other economists to agree to adopt efficiency as their goal, or to spread that same view more widely in society?

By: Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:14:52 +0000

I just reworded the pledge a bit, in response to various comments.

By: Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:39:12 +0000

George, you are right, so I’ve added a phrase about making this pledge clear to clients.

By: nazgulnarsil

nazgulnarsil — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:06:05 +0000

how do you identify who has broken the pledge when empirical studies in economics are even harder than in medicine?

should economists have malpractice insurance?