Can Economics Become an Exact Science?

Will Economics Become an Experimental Science?

Is economics an empirical science? If not, can it become one?

Today’s mainstream economics, embodied in Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models, cannot be considered an empirical science in the modern sense of the term: it is not based on empirical data, is not descriptive of the real-world economy, and has little forecasting power. In this paper, I begin with a review of the weaknesses of neoclassical economic theory and argue for a truly sc...

Can psychology become a science?

I am profoundly grateful to Tom Bouchard for helping me learn to think scientifically. Scientific thinking, which is characterized by a set of safeguards against confirmation bias, does not come naturally to the human species, as the relatively recent appearance of science in history attests. Even today, scientific thinking is in woefully short supply in many domains of psychology, including cl...

Can we make biochemistry an exact science?

This is a documented, expanded version of a paper with a similar title scheduled for publication in the October 2014 issue of ASBMB Today

Economics Language and Assumptions: How Theories Can Become Self-fulfilling

Social science theories can become self-fulfilling by shaping institutional designs and management practices, as well as social norms and expectations about behavior, thereby creating the behavior they predict. They also perpetuate themselves by promulgating language and assumptions that become widely used and accepted. We illustrate these ideas by considering how the language and assumptions o...