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
--- Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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,
Social science does have a great advantage over
Armchairers,
You might want to check out the extensive literature on so-called direct
techniques such as contingent valuation and conjoint analysis that is used
in environmental economics to elicit quantitative estimates of
willingness-to-pay for non-market, non-use goods. Quantitative results
I detect something of a tension in academic economics. 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, and so try to infer reasons from behavior,
rather
I think Robin exaggerates the extent to which social science would be
easier if we could just ask people why they do things. To be sure,
there is a tradition in economics that survey results about intentions
and ideas (as opposed to age and income!) are not to be trusted. I agree
this
12:35 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Only Economists Tell the Truth?
I think Robin exaggerates the extent to which social science would be
easier if we could just ask people why they do things. To be sure,
there is a tradition in economics that survey results about intentions
and ideas
: Only Economists Tell the Truth?
I think Robin exaggerates the extent to which social science would be
easier if we could just ask people why they do things. To be sure,
there is a tradition in economics that survey results about intentions
and ideas (as opposed to age and income
Here is another reason, that just occured to me, why survey
questions may not help us as much as we would like even on those
questions where they are relevant. In economics we are typically
interested in what matters at the margin and this may be difficult to
discover in a survey question.
