Ep. 4: All Models Are Wrong, but Economic Models Are Especially Wrong: Notes on Objective Knowledge and What (Feminist) Economics Even Is

The next two episodes are about game theory and bargaining models (and economists looooove talking about models), so I thought I’d spend this episode telling you how scientific models work, why they’re all wrong, and why economic models are especially prone to error. I also talk about Catharine MacKinnon’s feminist method, and why a feminist economics grounded in the personal lives and experiences of women is one way to counter the erroneousness of economic models, which are heavily informed by the personal experiences and opinions of men.

 

References

Box, G. E. P. “Robustness in the Strategy of Scientific Model Building.” Robustness in Statistics, 1979, pp. 201-236. DOI: <https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-438150-6.50018-2>.

Colander, D., Goldberg, M., Haas, A., Juselius, K., Kirman, A., Lux, T., & Sloth, B. (2009). THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE SYSTEMIC FAILURE OF THE ECONOMICS PROFESSION. Critical Review, 21(2–3), 249–267. DOI: <doi.org/10.1080/08913810902934109>.

MacKinnon, Catharine A. “Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence.” Signs, Summer 1983, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 635–658. JSTOR stable link: <jstor.org/stable/pdf/3173687.pdf>.

“Empowering Girls & Women.” Clinton Global Initiative. 2009. <www.un.org/en/ecosoc/phlntrpy/notes/clinton.pdf>.

Rink, Ute and Barros, Laura. “Spending or saving? Female empowerment and financial decisions in a matrilineal society.” World Development, Vol. 141, 2021. <doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105342>.

Shapiro, Fred R. “The Most-Cited Law Review Articles Revisited.” Symposium on Trends in Legal Citations and Scholarship, Chicago-Kent Law Review, April 1996. <scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3037&context=cklawreview>.

Boustan, Leah and Langan, Andrew. “Variation in Women’s Success across PhD Programs in Economics.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 33, No. 1, Winter 2019. DOI: <10.1257/jep.33.1.23>.

 

Further Reading

“Why Economists Failed to Predict the Financial Crisis.” Knowledge at Wharton, May 2009. <knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-economists-failed-to-predict-the-financial-crisis/>.

Parker, Kim. “Women more than men adjust their careers for family life.” Pew Research Center, 2015. <pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/10/01/women-more-than-men-adjust-their-careers-for-family-life/>.

You can also see this New York Times Opinion article by Raj Chetty that takes the opposing view that Economics is a science: <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/opinion/yes-economics-is-a-science.html>.

 

Cover art by Cato Benschop (IG: @catobenschop).

 

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