"People who go into economics, in modern times, tend to be people who are good at math but didn't want to be engineers or physicists, and if you have that talent, what do you do? You go into economics. You can't get a Ph.D. without going through an intensively mathematical program. That's the hurdle you have to pass. It's kind of like a hazing to get into the profession."
-- Robert Shiller
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I actually think this is one of the main reasons, on average, more social science insights come from economics than other disciplines.
ReplyDeleteNot because the mathematics and econometrics used in their papers makes their arguments much more convincing, but that the economics profession screens for high-IQ, and high IQ people have better intuitions.