"Forty years of investment in mathematizing economics has made it less acceptable among economists to admit ignorance of mathematics than to admit ignorance of history" - Deirdre McCloskey
You cannot be an economist today without knowing your math. To complete any PhD program, you will need to possess a strong understanding of mathematics, statistics, and econometrics. You will also likely have strong programming skills. Finance is being dominated by quants.
You will not need to know history in this environment; yet, as I get older, understanding history becomes a critical skill. All policy analysis needs context for what has worked in the past. You need history to describe "experiments" in the past. The past determines the path for the current and future.
In finance at the local level, you need to know the history of companies; their evolution is relevant. At the macro level, we need to know the specifics to appreciate our generalizations. It seems that one semester of economic history is not too much to ask for our experts.
This has been a common theme on how we think.
No comments:
Post a Comment