Economists: moral realists or real moralists? Comment on Fourcade and Brunetti

A comparative sociologist who has spent her international career in academia—Marion Fourcade—and a practically minded academic economist with an extended stint in the Swiss government—Aymo Brunetti—offer their views on the role of economists in politics and society. Although Fourcade and Brunetti differ a lot in terms of experience and interest, their insightful and nuanced assessments of economics today are often remarkably similar. Marion Fourcade addresses economists with the Japanese attitude of a 30-degree bow. She modestly calls her views “from below” and she refrains from throwing the gauntlet to the economics profession, as many representatives of social sciences have done in the past. That does not mean she turns a blind eye on some weaknesses of our field. Yet, she portraits problematic issues as interesting aspects of economics. Her text is a pleasure to read because it is an invitation to think about our field, rather than a challenge to a duel. More hands on, but not less interesting, Aymo Brunetti features another tension economists face: not between academic fields, but rather within the economics profession between academically and more policy-oriented scholars. Interestingly, both non-economists and economic practitioners often feel to be looked down upon by academic economists. Marion Fourcade’s label the “Veiled Moralists” is certainly appropriate for many, if not all, representatives of our profession. Gunnar Myrdal made a big effort to distinguish positive and normative economics and to warn his fellow economists of the gateways through which hidden value judgements enter into and contaminate our analysis. However, the dichotomy positive-normative is too narrow. Thomas Kuhn, in his analysis of “scientific revolutions”, found that, before drawing positive or normative conclusions, scientists need a way of looking at the world, a pair of glasses he called “paradigms”. A typical example would be Hayek’s “decentralized information” view, as Marion Fourcade calls it.