LA VIE DE L’INSTITUT INSTITUTE NEWS WHAT IS THE USE OF ECONOMICS?
Amartya Sen, Professor, Harvard University; 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
During the Opening Lecture, Professor Amartya Sen explained why economics is an inexact science – and why this is a good thing – and how drawing on economic history can help inform policy-making to address contemporary global challenges. On economics as a science Economics has been called the dismal science. It’s certainly not a rose garden. It could not be. Many dismal things happen in the economic world: unemployment and poverty, terrible deprivations and gross inequality, hunger and famines, and so on. The subject of economics can hardly stay clear of these grim realities. The real difficulty that arises in trying to understand economics as a dismal science is not its dismal nature, but its epistemological status. Is this allegedly dismal science a science at all? […] One apparent concern relates to the lack of precision in social analysis. Precision is often taken to be a defining characteristic of science. […] But appropriate specification of inescapable imprecision is part of the discipline of science in this case.
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Amartya Sen. Photo Eric ROSET.
Distinguished Economist Amartya Sen was invited to the Institute on 3 October 2012 to deliver the Opening Lecture of the Academic Year and to receive the first Edgar de Picciotto International Prize. Attributed every two years, the prize rewards internationally renowned academics, whose research has contributed to the better understanding of global challenges and has inspired policy-makers. The prize was created to pay homage to Mr de Picciotto and his family whose exceptionally generous support contributed in large part to the financing of the Institute’s Student House.
Webcast of the Opening Lecture http://graduateinstitute.ch/video-sen
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Video interview of Professor Amartya Sen by Professor Jean-Louis Arcand http://graduateinstitute.ch/interview-sen
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Does economics yield some legitimate views about the nature of the practical world around us? I’d like to argue that it does. […] This is relevant for reasoned policy-making. Economics may not [offer] a single, definitive view of what should be done. And even when there is an agreement on underlying values, it can still produce divergent views of exactly what should be done. But nevertheless, despite the existence of some differences within an acceptable reading, there could be a solid basis there for questioning policies that are accepted with inadequate or bad reasoning.
LA REVUE DE L’INSTITUT I THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE REVIEW I GLOBE I N11 Printemps I Spring 2013
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