PhD Economist Derp: What is it?
Nobel prize winning Economist Paul Krugman explains what is a sure sign of when a PhD Economist is being a “derp”:
OK, so some economists got it wrong. That happens to everyone, unless you’re too cowardly to make any testable predictions at all. But what you’re supposed to do when things don’t play out as you predicted is (a) acknowledge the mistake (b) try to understand what went wrong (c) revise your framework in an attempt to avoid making the same mistake again. …
What’s striking about the economists … is that as far as I can tell none of them has even gotten to step (a), acknowledging their mistake. They kept saying the same wrong thing year after year (which is what makes it derp), and even those who eventually stopped saying the same thing never admitted past mistakes….
Professor Krugman then explained why PhD Economists get away with being derps:
Why this durability of unrepentant, unprofessional derp? … There are no costs … you’ll still get invited to all the meetings, get treated with respect, even get letters from … colleagues supporting your nomination to high office. [emphasis added]
Left off his list is they still get high paid consulting gigs.
Professor Krugman added to his definition of PhD Economist derp when he tweeted on January 26, 2018:
Being an inflation derper means never having to say you’re sorry, or even admit that you were wrong — and definitely means learning nothing from your mistakes
Based on my experience, I like to rephrase his tweet to generalize it so it definitely applies to Nobel prize in Economics winners too:
Being a PhD Economist derper means never having to say you’re sorry, or even admit that your were wrong — and definitely means learning nothing from your mistakes.
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