Climateer Investing: Oh Dear Lord: "The Superiority of Economists"

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Oh Dear Lord: "The Superiority of Economists"

As we are fond of saying around here, just because you use the tools of science (maths), that doesn't make you a scientist.

Mike Norman Economics directs us to three of the early commenters on the recent Fourcade/Illon/Algan paper:

Dec. 2, 2014
Noah Smith — Why Economists Are Paid So Much

Economists are scarce relative to demand. They have many lucrative outside options. The most important of these are the consulting and financial industries.
But why do economists have the option to go work in consulting and finance? The answer is simple: They have the technical skills to do so.…
The technical skill I am talking about is statistics. Economists learn a lot of statistics -- much more than anyone else except for applied mathematicians and statisticians...MORE

Dec. 2, 2014
Peter Dorman — How Is Economics Different?

I’ve just read, with morbid fascination, “The Superiority of Economics” by Marion Fourcade, Etienne Ollion, and Yann Algan, which will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. No surprise that it is such a fine bit of work: I was very impressed by Fourcade’s Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1990s, which came out a few years ago....MORE

Dec. 2, 2014
Peter Radford — The Radford Free Press

Actually the paper I just read is called “The Superiority of Economists”. It’s another analysis of thee economics profession by Marion Fourcade, this time in association with Etienne Ollion and Yann Algan. It is well worth reading and fits neatly in the same analytical tradition as Fourcade’s 2009 book “Economists and Societies”.

The problem is that none of it is particularly surprising. The point being that economists, by asserting their superiority vis other social sciences have exposed themselves to greater scrutiny and criticism than their peers. This has, apparently, induced more soul-searching within economics than in those other social sciences. Along with the air of superiority that economists exude due to their self-proclaimed intellectualism, comes a big dollop of insecurity.…
...MORE

In addition, Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution posted on Dec. 1: "The Superiority of Economists" and Crooked Timber on Dec. 2: "Economists aren't 'superior' just because".

For the record a Google search for -Economists don't forecast- brings up a:

Did you mean: economists can't forecast.