What’s the use of economics?

Economics is under fire both from outside and inside the profession for irrelevance, arrogance, and more. This new Vox debate focuses on two questions: What’s the use of economics? How should we be teaching it to the next generation?

Commentaries

What’s the use of economics? A new Vox debate

Diane Coyle, 18 September 2012

This column is a lead commentary in the VoxEU Debate "What's the use of economics?" If economics emerges from the Global Crisis unchanged, it will lose all credibility. That is certainly not the view of all economists, but many do think so. There are plenty of examples of criticism of our subject from within and without. Some are ill-informed rants, but others – such as the...
What have the economists ever done for us?

Andrew G Haldane, 28 September 2012

This column is a lead commentary in the VoxEU Debate "What's the use of economics?" There is a long list of culprits when it comes to assigning blame for the financial crisis. At least in this instance, failure has just as many parents as success. But among the guilty parties, economists played a special role in contributing to the problem. We are duty bound to be part of the...
How should macroeconomics be taught to undergraduates in the post-crisis era? A concrete proposal

Wendy Carlin, David Soskice, 25 October 2012

This column is a lead commentary in the VoxEU Debate "What's the use of economics?" Economics students have started to establish new student societies, which focus not on how to get a job in the City, but on the question ‘How can economics be used to understand the world better and improve it?’ This suggests an increasing appetite to participate in policy discussions. But...
What’s the use of economics?

Alan Kirman, 29 October 2012

This column is a lead commentary in the VoxEU Debate "What's the use of economics?" The simple question that was raised during a recent conference organised by Diane Coyle at the Bank of England was to what extent has - or should - the teaching of economics be modified in the light of the current economic crisis? The simple answer is that the economics profession is unlikely to change...

Reaction to Haldane

Simon Wren-Lewis Oxford University, 8 October 2012

I am, like many, in awe of Bank of England director and economist Andy Haldane. However I did wince a bit at his Lead Commentary for the recent Vox debate on economics (Haldane 2012 ). He looks at the extent economists are to blame for the financial crisis, and he makes two interrelated claims. Having noted that central banks have traditionally been concerned with the “interplay of bank...

Reaction to Haldane

Simon Wren-Lewis Oxford University, 8 October 2012

I am, like many, in awe of Bank of England director and economist Andy Haldane. However I did wince a bit at his Lead Commentary for the recent Vox debate on economics (Haldane 2012 ). He looks at the extent economists are to blame for the financial crisis, and he makes two interrelated claims. Having noted that central banks have traditionally been concerned with the “interplay of bank...