Unsolved problems in economics

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by slothtrop on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @10:59AM (#31411685)

Were it reduced to "predictions". It isn't. And people take for granted a lot of popular concepts borne of the study as though it was always known. E.g. the relationship between interest rates & exchange rates, supply and demand, etc.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by guerrilla on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @11:17AM (#31411983)

Any "science" that can't reliably make reliably make predictions isn't a science. That's the litmus test.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by slothtrop on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @11:18AM (#31412011)

You've just eliminated all social sciences, by your metric of "reliably".

edit: your take-away from this should be that you're mis-defining science.

edit2: you all forgot that medical and nutritional science has a reproducibility crisis, it's no less "science" for it. Add to the fact, the notion that nothing is reproducible in Economics is false. See for example: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/famous-economics-experime... , https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaf0918

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by ur-whale on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @12:19PM (#31412898)

> You've just eliminated all social sciences

Because they're indeed not sciences.

They call themselves that to attract funding.

Predictive power and reproducibility are defining characteristics of sciences.

Social "sciences" have neither and therefore aren't sciences.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by slothtrop on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @01:21PM (#31413748)

reproducibility has improved over time as well - https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jel.20171350

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by guerrilla on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @11:37AM (#31412273)

Absolutely.

> edit: your take-away from this should be that you're mis-defining science.

No thanks.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by initplus on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @05:16PM (#31416382)

Volcanologists cannot exactly predict when a volcano will erupt. Seismologists cannot exactly predict when an earthquake will happen. Both can only offer uncertain probabilities. But these are definitely both sciences.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by guerrilla on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @05:55PM (#31416751)

They don't have to predict everything, especially things that aren't predictable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Unsolved problems in economics by dotopotoro on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @05:06PM (#31416283)

What kind of precision of prediction is required? Economics predict some things. For example if you print exceedingly a lot moneys, inflation will happen.

At the same time, physicists have problem telling precise location and momentum of the atom (at the same time; precisely).

(footnote: I love physics more than economics, but world is not perfect and sciences are not perfect. Except for math maybe https://xkcd.com/435 . Perfection and usefulness are not the same)

[ Parent | on HN ]