Esta nota de John Kay The Map is Not the Territory: An Essay on the State of Economics está provocando algunas reacciones en la econoblogósfera. Algunos de los temas centrales en la nota se refieren a una vieja discusión entre deducción e inducción o el papel de conceptos como Equivalencia Ricardiana, etc. Yo reproduzco tres párrafos que nos dan una idea del resto de la nota...
.
"...The knowledge that every problem has an answer, even and perhaps especially if that answer may be difficult to find, meets a deeply felt human need. For that reason, many people become obsessive about artificial worlds, such as computer games, in which they can see the connection between actions and outcomes. Many economists who pursue these approaches are similarly asocial. It is probably no accident that economics is by far the most male of the social sciences.."
"...They have undeniable virtues, but for economists they have particular interpretations. Consistency means that any statement about the world must be made in the light of a comprehensive descriptive theory of the world. Rigour means that the only valid claims are logical deductions from specified assumptions. Consistency is therefore an invitation to ideology, rigour an invitation to mathematics. This curious combination of ideology and mathematics is the hallmark of what is often called ‘freshwater economics’ – the name reflecting the proximity of Chicago, and other centres such as Minneapolis and Rochester, to the Great Lakes..."
"...If much of the modern research agenda of the economics profession is thus unconnected to the everyday world of business and finance, this is also largely true of what is taught to students. Most people finishing an undergraduate course today would not be equipped to read the Financial Times. They could import data on GDP and consumer prices into a statistical package, and would have done so, but would have no idea how these numbers were derived. They would be little better equipped than the person in the street to answer questions such as ‘why were nationalised industries more efficient in France than in Britain?’, ‘why is a school teacher in Switzerland paid much more than an Indian one?’, or the oldest of examination chestnuts, ‘are cinema seats in London expensive because rents in London are high, or vice versa?’. ."
"...The knowledge that every problem has an answer, even and perhaps especially if that answer may be difficult to find, meets a deeply felt human need. For that reason, many people become obsessive about artificial worlds, such as computer games, in which they can see the connection between actions and outcomes. Many economists who pursue these approaches are similarly asocial. It is probably no accident that economics is by far the most male of the social sciences.."
"...They have undeniable virtues, but for economists they have particular interpretations. Consistency means that any statement about the world must be made in the light of a comprehensive descriptive theory of the world. Rigour means that the only valid claims are logical deductions from specified assumptions. Consistency is therefore an invitation to ideology, rigour an invitation to mathematics. This curious combination of ideology and mathematics is the hallmark of what is often called ‘freshwater economics’ – the name reflecting the proximity of Chicago, and other centres such as Minneapolis and Rochester, to the Great Lakes..."
"...If much of the modern research agenda of the economics profession is thus unconnected to the everyday world of business and finance, this is also largely true of what is taught to students. Most people finishing an undergraduate course today would not be equipped to read the Financial Times. They could import data on GDP and consumer prices into a statistical package, and would have done so, but would have no idea how these numbers were derived. They would be little better equipped than the person in the street to answer questions such as ‘why were nationalised industries more efficient in France than in Britain?’, ‘why is a school teacher in Switzerland paid much more than an Indian one?’, or the oldest of examination chestnuts, ‘are cinema seats in London expensive because rents in London are high, or vice versa?’. ."
.
Entre algunas de las reacciones a esta nota esta este post de Matt Yglesias, que es una interesante discusión sobre el debate deducción-inducción y una comparación con la astrofísica.... vale la pena
3 comentarios:
Vaya, esta es una de las notas que más me han gustado del blog. En primer lugar, por el inminente recordatorio de la vocación científica . En segundo lugar, porque en el CIDE nos han hecho abrevar agua dulce y, en tercer lugar, porque es un recordatorio para voltear de vez en cuando la mirada fuera de los libros hacia la realidad.
Saludos,
Mario Enrique
Totalmente de acuerdo!
Es extraño, en mi muy personal punto de vista, que veamos cosas tan complejas como el teorema de la envolvente, álgebra lineal, etc. y generalmente no se enseñe análisis técnico a los estudiantes, a pesar de ser una herramienta estándar para muchos financieros.
Andrés Jurado
Me encantó este artículo porque hace mucho énfasis en la razón de ser de los economistas. Sin duda, ésta no es correr modelos y obtener miles de datos que nos dicen que si las cosas fueran como se espera se comportarían así. En el artículo se subraya que ésto puede hacerlo una máquina o un robot, por eso creo que la utilidad de los economistas está en saber interpretar esos datos y tener una intuición de por qué ocurren.
No podemos ser como los otros científicos y experimentar en nuestro laboratorio con una muestra de la realidad, pues, en nuestro caso, no es suficiente con una muestra es necesario salir y observar todo porque, finalmente, las decisiones de los individuos tienen un gran alcance.
Publicar un comentario