Leitura do Dia - A SCEPTIC’S COMMENT ON THE STUDY OF ECONOMICS

A SCEPTIC’S COMMENT ON THE STUDY OF
ECONOMICS*
Ariel Rubinstein
A survey was carried out among two groups of undergraduate economics students and four
groups of students in mathematics, law, philosophy and business administration. The main
survey question involved a conflict between profit maximisation and the welfare of the workers
who would be fired to achieve it. Significant differences were found between the choices of the
groups. The results were reinforced by a survey conducted among readers of an Israeli business
newspaper and PhD students of Harvard. It is argued that the overly mathematical methods
used to teach economics encourage students to lean towards profit maximisation.

Eu gosto bastante de alguns artigos do Ariel Rubistein; em especial o Dilemmas of an Economic Theorist. Mas sou bem cético em relação a experimentos em economia. Sinceramente acho quase impossível realizar um controle adequado nestas situações, e em boa parte dos casos acho que os resultados não são generalizaveis. E creio que seja o caso deste artigo, em que os grupos tem um conjunto de informação tão diferente. Mas sem dúvida é uma discussão interessante.