Home / Topics / Economics Quotes

Economics Quotes

Browse 2895 quotes about Economics.

Economics Quotes

“Going to the moon is not a matter of physics but of economics.”

Matter Moon Economics Physics

Author:John R. Platt

“Economists suffer from a deep psychological disorder that I call 'physics envy'. We wish that 99 percent of economic behavior could be captured by three simple laws of nature. In fact, economists have 99 laws that capture 3 percent of behavior. Economics is a uniquely human endeavor.”

“From the point of view of physics, it is a miracle that [seven million New Yorkers are fed each day] without any control mechanism other than sheer capitalism.”

Views Millions Capitalism Economics Miracle Seven Point Of View Physics Each Day Feds Mechanism Sheer New Yorkers

Author:John Henry Holland

“So, economics should emulate physics' basic ethos, but its search for precision in physics-like formulas is almost always wrong in economics.”

Should Economics Physics Formulas Precision Emulate Ethos Always Wrong

Author:Charlie Munger

“I have concluded that most PhD economists under appraise the power of the common-stock-based "wealth effect," under current extreme conditions... "Wealth effects" involve mathematical puzzles that are not nearly so well worked out as physics theories and never can be... What has happened in Japan over roughly the last ten years has shaken up academic economics, as it obviously should, creating strong worries about recession from "wealth effects" in reverse.”

“I've been a professor of mathematics at Harvard and at Yale. At Yale for a long time. But I'm not a mathematician only. I'm a professor of physics, of economics, a long list. Each element of this list is normal. The combination of these elements is very rare at best.”

Long Elements Normal Long Time Economics Mathematics Lists Physics Combination Professors Mathematician Harvard Yale

Author:Benoit Mandelbrot

“I do sense, as compared with let's say the early '50s, there's somewhat more of a careerism. I don't think it's anything special to economics; it's equally true with physics or biology. A graduate education has become a more career-oriented thing, and part of that is because of the need for funding. In fact, that's a much worse problem in the natural sciences than it is in economics. So you can't even do your work in the natural sciences, particularly, and even to some extent in economics, without funding.”

Thinking Needs Facts Problem Natural Careers Special Economics Physics Biology Graduates Funding Natural Science

Author:Kenneth Arrow

“My background educationally is physics and economics, and I grew up in sort of an engineering environment - my father is an electromechanical engineer. And so there were lots of engineery things around me.”

Father Environment Grew Grew Up Economics Physics Backgrounds Engineering Engineers

Author:Elon Musk

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.”

“Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over. The greatest picture is not yet painted, the greatest play isn't written, the greatest poem is unsung. There isn't in all the world a perfect railroad, nor a good government, nor a sound law. Physics, mathematics, and especially the most advanced and exact of the sciences are being fundamentally revised. . . Psychology, economics, and sociology are awaiting a Darwin, whose work in turn is awaiting an Einstein.”

Source: The autobiography of Lincoln Steffens: abridged

“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.”

“Unlike physics, for example, such parts of the bare bones of economic theory as are expressible in mathematical form are extremely easy compared with the economic interpretation of the complex and incompletely known facts of experience, and lead one a very little way towards establishing useful results.”

Way Littles Facts Form Easy Results Known Economic Example Theory Economics Complexes Bones Physics Mathematical Interpretation Economic Theory

Book:The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Essays in biography

Source: The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Essays in biography

“As a scholarly discipline, economics has always suffered from physics envy.”

Discipline Economics Envy Physics Scholarly

Author:Robert Kuttner

“Now we see evolutionary trends in a variety of areas ranging from atomic and molecular physics through fluid mechanics, chemistry and biology to large scale systems of relevance in environmental and economic sciences”

Economic Areas Economics Environmental Physics Scales Variety Biology Chemistry Trends Mechanic Relevance Fluid Large Scale

Book:Is Future Given?

Source: Is Future Given?

“Rulers do not like to admit that their power is restricted by any laws other than those of physics and biology. They never ascribe their failures and frustrations to the violation of economic law.”

Law Liberty Economic Economics Physics Frustration Biology Rulers Violation

Author:Ludwig von Mises

“To those who say climate change is not caused by human activity or that addressing it will harm the economy, let's encourage them to go to college, too, and to study physics and to study economics, but for the rest of us, let's get to work.”

Humans Economy Study College Activity Economics Climate Climate Change Harm Physics Human Activity

Author:Martin O'Malley

“What would it mean if there were a theory that explained everything? And just what does "everything" actually mean, anyway? Would this new theory in physics explain, say the meaning of human poetry? Or how economics work? Or the stages of psychosexual development? Can this new physics explain the currents of ecosystems, or the dynamics of history, or why human wars are so terribly common?”

Ifs Humans Mean Doe War Common Stage Theory Development Economics Historical Currents Physics Ecosystems Dynamics

Book:A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality

Source: A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”