daxat_staglatz

    Many of the insights of economics seem to be
    qualitative, with many fewer reliable quantitative laws.
    However a series of power laws in economics do count as
    true and nontrivial quantitative laws—and they are not
    only established empirically, but also understood
    theoretically.
    I will start by providing several illustrations of
    empirical power laws having to do with patterns involving
    cities, firms, and the stock market. I summarize some of
    the theoretical explanations that have been proposed.
    I suggest that power laws help us explain many economic
    phenomena, including aggregate economic fluctuations.
    I hope to clarify why power laws are so special, and to
    demonstrate their utility.
    In conclusion, I list some power-law-related economic
    enigmas that demand further exploration.

In my (biased) opinion, it is a very good introduction to the _economy_, though it is perhaps too light on _economics_ [0]. That is to say, it is much, much better than other introduction-to-economics textbook at presenting the relevant facts about the economy but is a bit light on analytical tools. If one wants to go beyond this textbook, they would have to learn them. If I were to offer a comparison, CORE econ is to traditional econ textbook what a natural history of the universe book might be to a physics textbook: many more topics covered including those that would not be addressed in an intro textbook but less studying of models.

Hopefully, if it catches on, we will hear fewer people arguing "Well, it is just basic economics that X" where X is something that it true in the toy model of econ 101 that is useful for learning but not really in real life.

I would suggest completing this book with some econometrics - since it is those tools that allow us to (try to) see which theories may be right and which may be wrong. The books by Pischke & Angrist are good: "Mastering Metrics", and at a higher level, "Mostly Harmless Econometrics".

The Journal of Economic Perspectives [1] is a great resource to learn more about a topic in economics. As it says: > The Journal of Economic Perspectives (JEP) fills the gap between the general interest press and academic economics journals.

The HN crowd would also most likely like the Quantitive Economics lectures [2] from Sargent & Stachurski.

[0] It is also a low density textbook, which seems to be common in American textbook

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- According to the Cour de Cassation, it is both a tax and a social contribution - According to the Conseil Constitutionnel, it is a tax - According to the Conseil d'Etat and the EUCJ, it is a social contribution

That public spending is c. 55% of GDP does not mean that private spending is 45% of GDP, since private + public spending does not equal GDP. Back of the envelope computations put private spending at 265% of GDP [0].

> if she is hired now, there is a good probability that she will have only a little retirement pension in 40 years, even if the law does not change. (probably close to the minimum salary, at least I hope so). So all this considerable amount of money will be wasted in the state and the "sécurité sociale" deep pockets.

It is hard to understand how French people can both have "very low" pensions and then be one of the country that spend the most on pensions as a share of GDP [1], and have retirees richer than working people [2, p5.]