Machlup’s one-sentence miscellany turns econometric terminology into a disciplinary joke. It asks the reader to remember an unfortunate econometrician whose model combines two suggestively named statistical devices:
Let us remember the unfortunate econometrician who, in one of the major functions of his system, had to use a proxy for risk and a dummy for sex
The humor rests on the double meanings of “proxy” and “dummy” when attached to risk and sex. The complete note is brief; its point is this play between technical vocabulary and ordinary language.
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