IQ tests have always bothered me. They claim to measure ‘general intelligence’. I think this is bullshit.

Blair Fix

Donald Trump took an IQ test … you’ll never guess what he scored! Apologies. That was my attempt at clickbait.

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Now that I’ve hooked you, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. No, not Donald Trump. Let’s talk about

 IQ

. For as long as I can remember I’ve been skeptical of measures of ‘intelligence’. The whole procedure rubbed me the wrong way.

Why ‘General Intelligence’ Doesn’t Exist

The ‘productivity-pay gap’ has nothing to do with productivity. Here’s why.

Have you heard of the ‘productivity-pay gap’? It’s the (apparently) growing gap between the productivity of US workers and their pay. Here’s what it looks like:  In this post, I debunk the ‘productivity-pay gap’ by showing that it has nothing to do with productivity. The reason is simple.

Debunking the ‘Productivity-Pay Gap’

For all that it purports to say, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fails to explain anything relevant about the world.

I’m reposting here an article that Erald Kolasi and I wrote for Mint Magazine. The article discusses the problems with ‘real’ GDP and possible alternatives for measuring economic activity. The published version is under a paywall, so I’m posting our (unabridged) manuscript here.

Why We Should Abandon Real GDP As A Measure of Economic Activity

Wages correlate with firms’ sales per worker. Does this mean that productivity explains wages? The answer is no.

Does productivity explain income? I asked this question in a previous post. My answer was a bombastic

 no

. In this post, I’ll dig deeper into the reasons that productivity doesn’t explain income. I’ll focus on wages. The evidence Let’s start with the evidence trumpeted as proof that productivity explains wages. Looking across firms, we find that sales per worker correlates with average wages.

Productivity Does Not Explain Wages

Real GDP is key to macroeconomics. But is it a valid measure of economic scale?

In this post, we’re going to go down the rabbit hole looking at the severe problems with real GDP. I am honored to have coauthored this research note with Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler. Jonathan teaches political economy at York University in Canada. Shimshon teaches political economy at colleges and universities in Israel. All of Bichler &amp;

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Why ‘General Intelligence’ Doesn’t Exist

Debunking the ‘Productivity-Pay Gap’

Why We Should Abandon Real GDP As A Measure of Economic Activity

Productivity Does Not Explain Wages

Real GDP: The Flawed Metric at the Heart of Macroeconomics