I also have the same kind of unease about economics, especially macroeconomics. It’s damn hard to run an experiment to test a hypothesis, and you have also have people running around claiming to be Austrian economists, Keynesian economists, Chicago school economists, etc.
I think it’s a no-brainer that we should have taken some of the trillions of dollars we’re spending on economic stimulus to study whether economic stimulus works. It would be a good investment to create a National Institute of Economics.
The problem here is that if you have experimental results that you have no story to explain, is that really any better than having a story with no experimental results to back it up?
I’m sure there are at least as many successful faith healers as there are instances where raising the minimum wage raised overall employment. The problem is that those results just don’t make sense, so I feel perfectly justified in refusing to accept those results without a valid model to explain them.
I also have the same kind of unease about economics, especially macroeconomics. It’s damn hard to run an experiment to test a hypothesis, and you have also have people running around claiming to be Austrian economists, Keynesian economists, Chicago school economists, etc.
For example: does raising the minimum wage by a few dollars an hour really increase the percentage of people who don’t have a job (the sum of the unemployed and those not in the labor force)? Can you prove it?
I think it’s a no-brainer that we should have taken some of the trillions of dollars we’re spending on economic stimulus to study whether economic stimulus works. It would be a good investment to create a National Institute of Economics.
The problem here is that if you have experimental results that you have no story to explain, is that really any better than having a story with no experimental results to back it up?
I’m sure there are at least as many successful faith healers as there are instances where raising the minimum wage raised overall employment. The problem is that those results just don’t make sense, so I feel perfectly justified in refusing to accept those results without a valid model to explain them.