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Economics Quotes

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Economics Quotes

“The conclusion to which I am ever more clearly coming is that the only hope of attaining a true system of economics is to fling aside,once and forever, the mazy and preposterous assumptions of the Ricardian school. Our English economists have been living in a fool's paradise. The truth is with the French school, and the sooner we recognize the fact, the better it will be for all the world, except perhaps the few writers who are far too committed to the old erroneous doctrines to allow for renunciation.”

World Has Beens Facts School Forever Fool Truth Is Economics Committed Doctrine Conclusion Assumption Paradise Economist Renunciation Fling

Book:Political Economy

Source: Political Economy

“I learned that economics was not an exact science and that the most erudite men would analyze the economic ills of the world and derive a totally different conclusion.”

Men World Different Economic Economics Conclusion Erudite Exact Sciences

Author:Edith Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill

“Much of economics isn't difficult, or rather, the difficulty is in cooking up arguments to "prove" that commonsense conclusions are wrong. The fact is that many commonsense conclusions are quite correct, and it takes a lot of education to get you to believe different.”

Believe Different Facts Difficult Prove Economics Argument Difficulty Cooking Conclusion

Author:Jerry Pournelle

“If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion.”

“The investigation of causal relations between economic phenomena presents many problems of peculiar difficulty, and offers many opportunities for fallacious conclusions. Since the statistician can seldom or never make experiments for himself, he has to accept the data of daily experience, and discuss as best he can the relations of a whole group of changes; he cannot, like the physicist, narrow down the issue to the effect of one variation at a time. The problems of statistics are in this sense far more complex than the problems of physics.”

“It is universally appreciated, I think, that theorists are able to tweak their assumptions in order to reach any conclusion they wish. The believability of the conclusion depends not only on the fact that it was reached but on how hard the theorist had to tweak the model to get there.”

Thinking Hard Facts Able Order Wish Depends Models Economics Conclusion Assumption Appreciated Theorists Tweak Believability

Author:David M. Kreps

“Page after page of professional economic journals are filled with mathematical formulas leading the reader from sets of more or less plausible but entirely arbitrary assumptions to precisely stated but irrelevant theoretical conclusions.”

Economic Reader Pages Economics Filled Conclusion Mathematical Assumption Formulas Journal Irrelevant Arbitrary Theoretical Plausible

Book:Essays in Economics: Theories, Theorizing, Facts, and Policies

Source: Essays in Economics: Theories, Theorizing, Facts, and Policies

“It economics is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking which helps its possessor to draw correct conclusions.”

Thinking Mind Helping Draws Economics Method Technique Doctrine Conclusion

Author:John Maynard Keynes

“We move from more or less plausible but really arbitrary assumptions, to elegantly demonstrated but irrelevant conclusions.”

Moving Economics Conclusion Assumption Irrelevant Arbitrary Plausible

Author:Wassily Leontief

“Some individuals are better able than others to draw the right conclusions about the world about them and act accordingly. These individuals will be more likely to survive and reproduce so their pattern of behaviour and thought will become dominant”

World Able Individual Draws Economics Patterns Conclusion Behaviour Dominant

Author:Stephen Hawking