Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

The Present State of Economic Science

by

Read this article

Access statistics
8,157 article downloads
8,345 complete issue downloads
Total: 16,502

Abstract

In this essay reprinted from Social Forces in 1926, Glenn E. Hoover laments the state of economic science. He suggests that because important political-economy decisions do not naturally fall to individuals with better knowledge and stronger motivation to make the decisions right, but rather are the province of citizens, opinion makers, and politicos at large, we cannot expect economic understanding and economic policy to remain on a steady path of progress, or even too maintain itself, unless due attention is given to the perennial threat of popular degradation.