Re:Accused of underpaying women, Google says it's too expens...
by jacques_chester on Saturday May 27, 2017 @12:08PM
(#14430640)
> Wages trend, in a competitive market, towards marginal productivity of labor.
In a equilibrium model based on perfectly identical, perfectly rational agents, yes.
And in a model of horseracing based on perfect, identical spheres rolling down a perfectly smooth slope, all race results will trend towards the acceleration predicted by g. And yet we observe differences in reality and accept that observable reality, not the model, is correct.
Equilibrium models are useful, but once you add the ability for agents to have varying preferences according to which other agent they are interacting with, you get emergent behaviour that doesn't show up in the original models.
In a equilibrium model based on perfectly identical, perfectly rational agents, yes.
And in a model of horseracing based on perfect, identical spheres rolling down a perfectly smooth slope, all race results will trend towards the acceleration predicted by g. And yet we observe differences in reality and accept that observable reality, not the model, is correct.
Equilibrium models are useful, but once you add the ability for agents to have varying preferences according to which other agent they are interacting with, you get emergent behaviour that doesn't show up in the original models.