Goodhart's Law - Expressions

Expressions

  • Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.
(Goodhart's original 1975 formulation, reprinted on p. 116 in Goodhart 1981)
  • A risk model breaks down when used for regulatory purposes. (Daníelsson, 2002)
(Daníelsson formally labels this a corollary of Goodhart's Law.)
  • When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
(Professor Marilyn Strathern FBA)
  • Goodhart's law is a generalized social science expression of the more well-known and economic-specific Lucas critique.

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