Re: Say's Law and Operationalism

["Gunnar Tomasson" <tomasson@xxxxxxxx>]

This is, in fact, an application of Samuelson's famous "correspondence
principle", whereby a bridge was built between static and dynamic analysis,
which earlier had usually been regarded as two completely different methods
of analysis.


----- Original Message -----
From: Alan G. Isaac <aisaac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Gunnar Tomasson <tomasson@xxxxxxxx>; Post Keynesian Theory
<pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2000 5:48 PM
Subject: Re: Say's Law and Operationalism


> Gunnar,
>
> The idea that Samuelson got the Nobel prize
> for his Correspondence Principle is prima
> facie ludicrous, so until you cite supporting
> text it cannot be taken seriously.  I provided
> a link to the official press release.  The brief
> text release is:  ``for the scientific work through
> which he has developed static and dynamic
> economic theory and actively contributed to
> raising the level of analysis in economic science.''
> And I will add that no matter how much one may
> dislike the direction Samuelson took the profession,
> he clearly deserved the award.
>
> I must add that you appear to misunderstand the
> Correspondence Principle.  The idea is very simple.
> Suppose you write down a dynamic model and then wish
> to compare static equilibrium.  Samuelson simply observes that this
> makes no sense unless one can actually expect movement
> from one equilibrium to the other.  Samuelson therefore
> suggests doing the comparative statics of the dynamic
> model only for the cases that  ``make sense'', which he
> argued were the stable cases.  At the level of modeling,
> it is offered as an internal consistency criterion.
> (Note that I am not arguing that it is the only possible
> or best criterion; I'm just expositing the concept.)
>
> Alan Isaac
>
>