Advanced Math Overrated More Generally?
That the use of advanced math in economics is at best a useless waste of time-and often directly harmful is a subject which I've repeatedly discussed in the past. According to this article by E.O. Wilson, math might be overrated even in some natural sciences as well.
posted by stefankarlsson at 1:52 PM
1 Comments:
The typical school book exercise in math is to solve X from a polynom. I've actually never found any practical aplication of that, outside trivial geometry!
The math which todays mainstream economists use is very trivial and simplistic for an astrophysicist. I mean laughably trivial, like using the linear regression invented over 200 years ago. Scientists don't do that, stuff isn't linear, not even in physics. And certainly the economy if anything isn't. Linear regression was invented in the 1700:s because it was easy to do with pen and paper, as a very rouhg first estimate. Still, economists rarely go beyond that. Often ignoring examinations of the many presumptions it requires about the data used.
I'm not saying that more or better math would improve economics, absolutely not. But the math used is very far from advanced. I don't like the term "mathematical economics". I'd rather call it "data mining economics".
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