Questions America Wants Answered: "How Far Out of Touch with the Real World Are Academic Economists?"
Lifted in toto from
ElectEcon:
Academic economists make their way by demonstrating their
mathematical prowess in top-ranked journals. Anyone who denies this is a
fool or a knave.
And here is a similar, more fleshed-out condemnation of what we do, this time from Dani Rodrik titled, "What Use Are Economists?". The conclusion:
There is one other thing that the public should know about
economists: It is cleverness, not wisdom, that advances academic
economists’ careers. Professors at the top universities distinguish
themselves today not by being right about the real world, but by
devising imaginative theoretical twists or developing novel evidence. If
these skills also render them perceptive observers of real societies
and provide them with sound judgment, it is hardly by design.
From the P
roject Syndicate link:
Dani Rodrik is Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard
University’s Kennedy School of Government and a leading scholar of
globalization and economic development....
