What is economics good for?  by Russ Roberts on January 5, 2011
in Complexity & Emergence, Economics, Hayek, Science,
Uncategorized  In three recent posts (here, here, and here), I
have argued that macroeconomics is deeply flawed and not a
science. Or at least not scientific in the conventional sense of
the word. Let me try to make my claims a little more precise and
react to some of the comments. Just because economics isn’t like
physics doesn’t mean it’s useless. So I will also try to talk
about what it is useful for.  Hayek condemned scientism–the use
of the tools of science to give a field such as economics the
aura of science without it’s predictive or descriptive power. He
didn’t just say this was a waste of time, he said it was
dangerous because it led to a false sense of precision and
understanding. The way I understand this (and I agree with
Hayek) is that the tools of physics–advanced dynamic equations
that treat the economy as a planetary body or even a group of
planets interacting, is not just wr