Sunday, March 22, 2015

A quote

from "The superiority of economists" by Marion Fourcade, Etienne Ollion and Yann Algan:
" First, the theory of action that comes with economists’ analytical style is hardly compatible with the basic premise of much of the human sciences, namely that social processes shape individual preferences (rather than the other way round). In economics, by contrast, “degustibus non est disputandum” (Stigler/Becker 1977): the action begins mainly when preferences are set.
Second, the qualitative methods that underpin the work of many interpretive social scientists often do not square well with the formal aspirations of the vast majority of economists, with their views on causality and their predilection for methodological and theoretical precision over a search for real-world accuracy." 

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