Is Economics the “Physics of Social Sciences” ? A Mirage

19 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2021

Date Written: January 22, 2021

Abstract


In dialog with an well-known and controversial book of two French economists (Cahuc and Zylberberg (2016)), we propose, in this article, to point out the mirage implied in attempts to consider economics as the “physics of the social sciences”. Given the availability of large datasets and the development of sophisticated statistical/econometric techniques, the viability of experimental (or quasi-experimental) evaluations would have made it possible the economics to make the leap to integrate the select group of “hard sciences”. We argue that this up-grade assumption does not materialize, considering that certain idiosyncrasies of physics, medicine, etc. (such as regularity, generalization of results, etc.) are not possible in the case of economics. Permeating this debate are the problems associated with identifying the boundaries between competing paradigms and interpretations that cannot be considered scientific.

Keywords: scientific paradigms, experimental evaluation, hard-sciences, empirical evidence, economics.

JEL Classification: A2, B40, B4, C90

Suggested Citation

Ramos, Carlos Alberto, Is Economics the “Physics of Social Sciences” ? A Mirage (January 22, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3771596 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3771596

Carlos Alberto Ramos (Contact Author)

University of Brasilia ( email )

FACE. Campus Asa Norte.
Brasilia, DF 70910900
Brazil

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