How to measure economic research?

Paul Samuelson once stated, “In the long run, the economic scholar works for the only coin worth having-our own applause." (Samuelson, 1962, p 18) He did add a footnote, “Lest I be misunderstood, …” But that statement set the tone how economic research is measured: Our own applause, the applause from fellow economists. Over time, economists become an extremely insulated community.

The consistency with other research subjects, such as physics, is ignored. Samuelson even claimed, “And I may add that the sign of a crank or half-baked speculator in the social sciences is his search for something in the social system that corresponds to the physicist’s notion of “entropy.” (Samuelson, 1972) As a result, economic theory is detached from physics and other theories. In particular, economists pay scant attention to the problem of resource scarcity.

In economic theory, people are supposed to maximize utility, a subjective concept. There is no objective measurement of the quality of description in economic theories. When the fertility rate of a society drops below the replacement rate, it is a sure sign of problem for biologists and demographers. But economists are slow to recognize the issue. In many countries, fertility rates have dropped below the replacement rate since 1970s. But most economists, who only pay close attention to the loudness of applause from their fellow economists, barely notice the negative biological return in their societies.

Any social group that only seek their own applause will easily lose touch with external environment.

Reference

Samuelson, P.A., 1962. Economists and the History of Ideas. The American Economic Review, 52(1), pp.1-18.