Dani Rodrik Quotes & Sayings

The economics we need is of the "seminar room" variety, not the "rule-of-thumb" kind. It is an economics that recognizes its limitations and caveats and knows that the right message depends on the context. The fine print is what economists have to contribute. — Dani Rodrik

An economists' consensus is perhaps more a rarity than a regularity. But when it happens, we need to pause and take stock. — Dani Rodrik

Unlike national markets, which tend to be supported by domestic regulatory and political institutions, global markets are only 'weakly embedded'. There is no global lender of last resort, no global safety net, and of course, no global democracy. In other words, global markets suffer from weak governance, and are therefore prone to instability, inefficiency, and weak popular legitimacy. — Dani Rodrik

In sum, economists (and those who listened to them) became overconfident in their preferred models of the moment: markets are efficient, financial innovation improves the risk-return trade-off, self-regulation works best, and government intervention is ineffective and harmful. They forgot about the other models. There was too much Fama, too little Shiller. The economics of the profession may have been fine, but evidently there was trouble with its psychology and sociology. — Dani Rodrik

The world is better served by syncretic economists and policymakers who can hold multiple ideas in their heads than by 'one-handed' economists who promote one big idea regardless of context. — Dani Rodrik

What determines success in industrial policy is not the ability to pick winners but the capacity to let the losers go. — Dani Rodrik

We have arrived at one of the central paradoxes of economics: uniformity amid diversity. Economists work with a plethora of models, pointing in all kinds of contradictory directions. Yet when it comes to the issues of the day, their views often converge in ways that cannot be justified by the strength of the available evidence. — Dani Rodrik

When economists get it right, the world gets better. — Dani Rodrik

Why should we allow international markets to erode domestic labor regulations through the back door when we do not allow domestic markets to do the same? The — Dani Rodrik

If economics were only about profit maximization, it would be just another name for business administration. It is a social discipline, and society has other means of cost accounting besides market prices. — Dani Rodrik

When globalization collides with domestic politics, the smart money bets on politics. — Dani Rodrik

when a consensus forms around the universal applicability of a conclusion from a specific model, the critical assumptions of which are likely to be violated in many settings - as with perfect competition, say, or full consumer information - we have a problem. — Dani Rodrik

Field experiments to date have shown that microfinance - the provision of small loans, typically to women or groups of women - is not particularly effective in reducing poverty.14 — Dani Rodrik

The correct answer to almost any question in economics is: It depends. — Dani Rodrik

policy discussion usually means pitting one model against another. Viewpoints and policy prescriptions that aren't backed by a model typically don't have standing. — Dani Rodrik

These results stand in sharp contrast to the hype that microfinance has attracted in development policy circles. They throw cold water on models that suggest lack of access to finance is among the most important constraints that poor households face. — Dani Rodrik

In a famous hoax, physicist Alan Sokal submitted an article to a leading journal of cultural studies purporting to describe how quantum gravity could produce a "liberatory postmodern science." The article, which parodied the convoluted style of argument in the fashionable academic world of cultural studies, was promptly published by the editors. Sokal announced that his intention was to test the intellectual standards of the discipline by checking whether the journal would publish a piece "liberally salted with nonsense." Sokal, "A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies," April 15, 1996, — Dani Rodrik

Because economists go through a similar training and share a common method of analysis, they act very much like a guild. The models themselves may be the product of analysis, reflection, and observation, but practitioners' views about the real world develop much more heuristically, as a by-product of informal conversations and socialization among themselves. This kind of echo chamber easily produces overconfidence - in the received wisdom or the model of the day. Meanwhile, the guild mentality renders the profession insular and immune to outside criticism. The models may have problems, but only card-carrying members of the profession are allowed to say so. The objections of outsiders are discounted because they do not understand the models. The profession values smarts over judgment, being interesting over being right - so its fads and fashions do not always self-correct. — Dani Rodrik