, Columnist
Economics Needs a Few More Theories
The empirical revolution was great. But scholarship also needs theoretical grounding to prevent bias from distorting research.
Think.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergA lot of my economist colleagues are enthusiastic about the promise of the empirical revolution in our field. They acknowledge the methodological problems of the young movement, but see the solution as more and better empirics. I, on the other hand, think that what’s needed is a larger dose of theory.
The benefits of the empirical revolution are clear. Prior to the 1980s, researchers spent most of their energy erecting an edifice of clever but untested theories. The advent of cheap desktop computers gave the next generation the power to put those theories to the test.