Economics may be a science, but it is not one of the sciences


(Begin poorly-thought-out post:)

Raj Chetty wrote an article for the New York Times that has been being passed around the economics blogosphere on why economics is a science:

What kind of science, people wondered, bestows its most distinguished honor on scholars with opposing ideas? “They should make these politically balanced awards in physics, chemistry and medicine, too,” the Duke sociologist Kieran Healy wrote sardonically on Twitter.

But the headline-grabbing differences between the findings of these Nobel laureates are less significant than the profound agreement in their scientific approach to economic questions, which is characterized by formulating and testing precise hypotheses. I’m troubled by the sense among skeptics that disagreements about the answers to certain questions suggest that economics is a confused discipline, a fake science whose findings cannot be a useful basis for making policy decisions.

He goes on to argue, strangely, that economics is a science because it…

View original post 177 more words

Author: Shane O'Mara

Neuroscientist, Psychologist, Writer

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