On 1/15/02, Fred Foldvary wrote: > > Social science would be vastly easier than economists make it out to be if > > we could usually just ask people why they do things. But economists > > are generally skeptical of this approach, > >... >But perhaps a major reason why we don't rely so much on asking, is that >economics is more concerned with the means towards goals than on why folks >have the goals that they do. We presume the means involve economizing, and >then there is really no need to inquire personally beyond that; Max(U) given >constraints C does the job, perhaps too abstractly.
There is the crucial intermediate task of figuring out what goals people do in fact have. Take the example of going to school. It is an open question what exact goal this serves. What is the goal of the people who hire other people who go to school? Sure school helps people "succeed", but how exactly does it do this? Via things learned? Ability signaled? Contacts acquired? If we could just ask people things, and believe them, we'd just ask people who hire others and people who go to school why they do it and we'd be done. I tend to agree with most economists that this isn't a very reliable approach. But consistency seems to suggest that I should then also not much believe economists when they tell me why they write the papers they do. Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444 703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
