So too economics. Until economics stops believing, contrary to its own princi- ples, that an intellectual free lunch is to be gotten from qualitative theorems and statistical significance it will be stuck on the ground waiting at the cargo-cult airport, at any rate in its high-end activities uninterested in (Really) How Much. High-end theoretical and econometric papers will be published. Careers will be made, thank you very much. Many outstanding fellows (and no women) will get chairs at Princeton and Chicago. But our understanding of the economic world will continue to be crippled by the spreading, ramifying, hideous sins.
That is Deirdre McCloskey in "The Secret Sins of Economics" (2002). She is visiting Francisco Marroquin University to receive a doctorate degree.
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