Adam Smith’s Unnaturally Natural (nonetheless Naturally Unnatural) use of the Word Natural

Natural and nature are complex words, fraught with ambiguity and contradiction. This paper does not attempt to give a complete account of Smith\u27s use of these words. However, it does demonstrate that Smith did not necessarily approve of what he called natural or nature . Economists and others who assume otherwise are in error. A study, analysis, and/or interpretation of Smith\u27s work which depends upon this (at times unstated) assumption - that Smith necessarily approved of nature or the natural - needs to be read with great care; perhaps even incredulity.

Fast rates for noisy clustering

The effect of errors in variables in empirical minimization is investigated. Given a loss $l$ and a set of decision rules $\mathcal{G}$, we prove a general upper bound for an empirical minimization based on a deconvolution kernel and a noisy sample $Z_i=X_i+\epsilon_i,i=1,...,n$. We apply this general upper bound to give the rate of convergence for the expected excess risk in noisy clustering. A recent bound from \citet{levrard} proves that this rate is $\mathcal{O}(1/n)$ in the direct case, under Pollard's regularity assumptions. Here the effect of noisy measurements gives a rate of the form $\mathcal{O}(1/n^{\frac{\gamma}{\gamma+2\beta}})$, where $\gamma$ is the H\"older regularity of the density of $X$ whereas $\beta$ is the degree of illposedness

A General Method for Obtaining a Lower Bound for the Ground State Entropy Density of the Ising Model With Short Range Interactions

We present a general method for obtaining a lower bound for the ground state entropy density of the Ising Model with nearest neighbor interactions. Then, using this method, and with a random coupling constant configuration, we obtain a lower bound for the ground state entropy density of the square, triangular, and hexagonal two-dimensional lattices with free, cylindrical, and toroidal boundary conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Elimination of All Bad Local Minima in Deep Learning

In this paper, we theoretically prove that adding one special neuron per output unit eliminates all suboptimal local minima of any deep neural network, for multi-class classification, binary classification, and regression with an arbitrary loss function, under practical assumptions. At every local minimum of any deep neural network with these added neurons, the set of parameters of the original neural network (without added neurons) is guaranteed to be a global minimum of the original neural network. The effects of the added neurons are proven to automatically vanish at every local minimum. Moreover, we provide a novel theoretical characterization of a failure mode of eliminating suboptimal local minima via an additional theorem and several examples. This paper also introduces a novel proof technique based on the perturbable gradient basis (PGB) necessary condition of local minima, which provides new insight into the elimination of local minima and is applicable to analyze various models and transformations of objective functions beyond the elimination of local minima.Comment: Accepted to appear in AISTATS 202

The case for industrial policy : a critical survey

What are the underlying rationales for industrial policy? Does empirical evidence support the use of industrial policy for correcting market failures that plague the process of industrialization? To address these questions, the authors provide a critical survey of the analytical literature on industrial policy. They also review some recent industry successes and argue that only a limited role was played by public interventions. Moreover, the recent ascendance of international industrial networks, which dominate the sectors in which less developed countries have in the past had considerable success, implies a further limitation on the potential role of industrial policies as traditionally understood. Overall, there appears to be little empirical support for an activist government policy even though market failures exist that can, in principle, justify the use of industrial policy.Economic Theory&Research,ICT Policy and Strategies,Water and Industry,Industrial Management,Markets and Market Access

Industrial Policies and Growth: Lessons from International Experience

The application of industrial policies (IP) to direct resources to industries considered preponderant in achieving growth has been the chosen road by many emerging economies to tackle underdevelopment. Subsidized loans, variable taxes and differentiated tariffs are frequently used. Because of the successful experiences of some South Asian industrial policies, other emerging countries feel tempted of replicating the formula. However, these should be sure first that their governments have the necessary competencies. There are also two questions to ask on the role of IPs in the growth of these countries: first, Were IPs the dominant factor in the countries’ accelerated growth? The neoclassical approach offers an alternative explanation, that the Asian miracle was mainly the result of strong macroeconomic policies implemented. The second question is: Can the problems of some Asian economies in the 1990s be explained by the prolonged application of IPs? This article finds evidence to support that economic growth was due to strong macroeconomic foundations, such as fiscal discipline, controlled inflation and adequate real exchange rate levels. These variables were the driving forces that created high levels of saving and investment. On the other hand, the implementation of IPs is difficult in a globalized world where the regulations of international trade have become very important.