Is Economics a Science?

Two prominent economists, Russ Roberts from the Hoover Institute, and Noah Smith from Stony Brook University, partook in an insightful conversation on Roberts’ podcast EconTalk a few weeks ago. Though they covered many interesting topics, most provoking to me was their discussion regarding whether or not economics is a science (Found from approximately minute 14 to minute Roberts, a strong neoclassical liberal economist, fell strongly on the side that economics is not a science arguing that “economics is not much of a science in the way that people in everyday English think about it” because “it doesn’t produce reliable empirical Continue reading Is Economics a Science?

Faculty Feature: A Workshop on Reflexivity

[From time to time, Sound Economics will feature contributions from across the economics faculty at the University of Puget Sound. In our first Faculty Feature segment, Wade Hands discusses his recent participation in a conference on reflexivity and the work of George Soros. -Andrew] In October, I attended an interesting workshop in Budapest that may interest readers of Sound Economics. The topic of the workshop was George Soros’s Theory of Reflexivity and Its Relationship to Economic Methodology. Most readers know George Soros as a successful investor and philanthropist and probably do not realize that he has written a number of books on Continue reading Faculty Feature: A Workshop on Reflexivity