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The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
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The Current State of Economics: Needs Lots of Work

Barbara R. Bergmann

University of Maryland, American University in Washington, D.C

The study of the economy has not developed as have other sciences, in which direct observation and data collection by the scientists themselves play a large part. Rather than evidence, which is mostly scarce and indirect, it is political ideology that determines which side of any controversy any economist is likely to take. Two methodological habits of the economics profession have contributed to the poor state of development of economics as a science. One is theorizing based on simple made-up scenarios and assumptions about human cupidity and rationality. The other is the lack of a rigorous connection between the modeling of the macroeconomy and an empirically based description of the behavior of consumers, firms, banks, and individual markets. This article provides a brief discussion of the work of those economists doing systematic observation of economic actors and an assessment of whether their work will lead toward an economics that is empirically based.

Key Words: economic science • behavioral economics • data collection • experimental economics

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 600, No. 1, 52-67 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0002716205276731
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[Abstract] [PDF]