" . . . one of Paul Samuelson's colleagues, a physicist, challenged him with: what theories or statements do we get from economics that are both non-trivial and true or at least valid?
Samuelson thought for a bit and came up with a good answer: the theory of comparative advantage.
But I think supply and demand also qualifies. It's not trivial -- just ask any econ prof who's taught Econ 101 to new students -- and though the model is not 100% accurate, it accurate enough to be immensely useful. And data analysts who don't understand supply and demand will flail around because their models are under-identified. If they understand simultaneous equation models (or alternative models such as complex systems, or system dynamics, or etc.) they can make progress, but they'll still be handicapped by not understanding supply and demand from the start. E.g Jay Forrester's system dynamics group created a model for the Club of Rome, but it was fatally flawed because they did not understand economics. Economist Julian Simon made better predictions simply using principles of economics.
Other economic insights that we might add to the list, besides comparative advance and supply-and-demand. The Coase Theorem, which even Coase's colleagues including Friedman and Stigler were skeptical about until they thought it through. And Prisoner's Dilemma, especially in repeated games. Although a lot of that early game theory work was done by mathematicians (famously including John von Neumann and John Nash). . . ."
Besides comparative advantage I would add " Creative destruction " by Mikhail Bakunin and " Mutual Aid " by Pytor Kropotkin. These are key factors in rapid economic evolution.
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