Economistical Arrogance

A lot of people think economists are arrogant. We are, even those of us who pretend we aren't. When we talk together, we laugh at how badly people without economics training think. We pity them, and wish everybody had to take a good economics course, not for the subject matter, but to learn how to think better.

I'm writing this up because I foresee having to explain it on many occasions. I will be discussing university administrators and say that economists are smarter. I will be discussing epidemiologists and say economists are smarter. I will be discussing politicans and say economists are smarter. People will get offended and call me arrogant and not want to believe what I am saying.

But the first question, and really the only important one, is whether I'm right. Are economists actually smarter than university administrators, epidemiologists, and politicians? The question of whether they are arrogant is interesting, perhaps, but it's not relevan to whether they are going to analyze situations better than university administrators, epidemiologists, and politicians, and give you better advice. When you need to make a decision, you don't look for the most humble person to give you advice, you look for the smartest. (Or at least the wisest, but we will come to that distinction later.)