評論
打印
This approach is enormously valuable.
這種方式非常有價值。
It disciplines thinking, produces useful information and makes it easier to build professional consensus about what is known and which questions remain unanswered.
它訓(xùn)練了思維，產(chǎn)生有用的信息，使人們更容易建立專業(yè)的共識，知道什么是已知的，哪些問題仍沒有答案。
Though cost-benefit analysis is not perfect, is often the best route to getting informed experts to agree.
盡管成本收益分析法并不完美，但通常是讓專家們?nèi)〉靡恢碌淖罴堰x擇。
Used in isolation, however, it can lead to trouble.
然而，如果孤立地使用它，將會帶來麻煩。
In a paper presented at the annual conference of the American Economic Association (AEA) in January, Matthew Weinzierl, of Harvard University,
今年1月份，哈佛大學(xué)的馬修· Weinzierl在美國經(jīng)濟(jì)協(xié)會（AEA）的年度會議上發(fā)表的一篇論文中指出，
notes that the world is too complicated to be modelled with anything like perfect accuracy.
世界太復(fù)雜，不能以完美的精確度來被建模。
Many knock-on effects from policy shifts are unknowable beforehand.
政策轉(zhuǎn)變帶來的許多連鎖反應(yīng)是不可知的。
He suggests that in the absence of perfect foresight, policymakers could turn to social principles or rules that have evolved over time.
他認(rèn)為，在缺乏完美預(yù)見的情形下，政策制定者可以轉(zhuǎn)向社會原則或隨著時間而演變的規(guī)則。
These may reflect accumulated knowledge about some choices’ unintended consequences.
這些可能反映了積累的關(guān)于某些選擇的意外結(jié)果的知識。
He gives an example.
他給出了一個例子。
Governments might choose to increase redistribution based on evidence that high inequality creates feelings of envy, and envy reduces the welfare of the non rich by making them feel worse.
政府可能會選擇增加再分配，基于這樣的證據(jù)，高度不平等會產(chǎn)生嫉妒感，而嫉妒感會使非富人的福利變得更糟糕。
Yet survey evidence suggests that people are largely opposed to redistribution that is motivated by envy.
但調(diào)查證據(jù)表明，人們在很大程度上反對由嫉妒感引起的再分配。
Validating envy through tax policy could prove socially corrosive, in a way that economists’ models fail to capture.
通過稅收政策來驗證嫉妒心理可能會對社會產(chǎn)生腐蝕，而經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家的模型無法捕捉到這點。
Put differently, Mr Weinzierl contends that economists should take moral concerns more seriously.
換句話說，Weinzierl先生認(rèn)為經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家應(yīng)該更認(rèn)真地對待道德問題。
That is something close to professional heresy.
這與專業(yè)的異端邪說很接近。
譯文來源余興宇
