Noah Smith has also been arguing that economics is also becoming a lot more data-oriented, that is, empirically based, than formal now.
The Enlightened Economist
Economics and its soul
Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation
Economics and its soul
Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation
My somewhat sarcastic response to Noah Smith's argument is that even mainstream journals realise mainstream econ theory is useless, and so even they have stopped publishing it.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that halfway sensible theory is still ignored. Trying to build an empirical science without any notion of what you are supposed to be looking at is not exactly a recipe for success. A lot of alchemy was empirical.