Is Economics a Science, and Art, a Humanity-or what?

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It’s still Nobel season, when the brightest brains in humanity get their awards. For readers of LSS, it’s like the Oscars, the Grammys and BBC Sports Personality of the year all rolled into one. So far, we’ve seen lots of biologists and chemists. Now It’s time for the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. Past winner include Paul Krugman, FA Hayek and Milton Friedman, so the winners have to be quite bright. This year it’s Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom of Stanford University, for their work on Auction Theory.

The following piece by Philip Ball of Nature is pretty complimentary

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02904-2?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=6b3b78efc9-briefing-dy-20201013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-6b3b78efc9-45255642

while Robin Mason in the Conversation thinks that Wilson and Milgrom’s insights could even drive down carbon emissions.

https://theconversation.com/nobel-economics-prize-wilson-and-milgroms-insights-into-auctions-could-drive-down-carbon-emissions-148019?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20October%2014%202020%20-%201757817033&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20October%2014%202020%20-%201757817033+CID_5e7917acc128e6a336ab94f923009567&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Nobel%20economics%20prize%20Wilson%20and%20Milgroms%20insights%20into%20auctions%20could%20drive%20down%20carbon%20emissions

However… Hats off to Caroline Benack, a PhD student at Duke University, also in the Conversation who holds a dissenting view. Caroline asseverates that economists aren’t like “real” scientists at all. You can read her view below. We find her a little hard to follow, but judge for yourself.

https://theconversation.com/economists-are-more-like-storytellers-than-scientists-dont-let-the-nobel-for-economic-s

We at LSS applaud hard thought and hard work anywhere and everywhere. Heavens, they even give a Nobel Prize for Peace-and you can’t measure that. Let human curiosity flourish, provided it is accompanied by thinking, rigorous definition and a search for evidence.

#nobelprizeforeconomicsciences #wilsonamdmilgrom #nature #theconversation

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