@article{1481711,
      recid = {1481711},
      author = {Schlefer, Jonathan,},
      title = {The Assumptions Economists Make /},
      pages = {1 online resource (384 p.)},
      abstract = {Economists make confident assertions in op-ed columns and  on cable news-so why are their explanations often at odds  with equally confident assertions from other economists?  And why are all economic predictions so rarely borne out?  Harnessing his frustration with these contradictions,  Jonathan Schlefer set out to investigate how economists  arrive at their opinions. While economists cloak their  views in the aura of science, what they actually do is make  assumptions about the world, use those assumptions to build  imaginary economies (known as models), and from those  models generate conclusions. Their models can be useful or  dangerous, and it is surprisingly difficult to tell which  is which. Schlefer arms us with an understanding of rival  assumptions and models reaching back to Adam Smith and  forward to cutting-edge theorists today. Although abstract,  mathematical thinking characterizes economists' work,  Schlefer reminds us that economists are unavoidably human.  They fall prey to fads and enthusiasms and subscribe to  ideologies that shape their assumptions, sometimes in  problematic ways.Schlefer takes up current controversies  such as income inequality and the financial crisis, for  which he holds economists in large part accountable.  Although theorists won international acclaim for creating  models that demonstrated the inherent instability of  markets, ostensibly practical economists ignored those  accepted theories and instead relied on their blind faith  in the invisible hand of unregulated enterprise. Schlefer  explains how the politics of economics allowed them to do  so. The Assumptions Economists Make renders the behavior of  economists much more comprehensible, if not less  irrational.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1481711},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674065529},
}