That’s the new book edited by David Levy and Sandra Peart; the subtitle is Conversations on Analytical Egalitarianism, an issue which arises frequently on this blog. The book offers an excellent dialogue between Buchanan and Warren Samuels, the best essay on Adam Smith’s theory of usury, Deirdre McCloskey on "Sacred Economics," my essay on "Is a Novel a Model?", Crampton and Farrant reinterpreting the socialist calculation debate, and the Rawls-Buchanan correspondence, among other treats. If you live in the world of "interesting economics," this is definitely a book to pick up.
By the way, Larry Mason wrote a novel which he claims is a model; I haven’t had time to read it yet. Plus the new novel by Russ Roberts, which illustrates economic concepts, seems to be out now.
Taleb is not my kind of nice guy but he seems to use a lot of fiction in his books. What do you think?
Will be catching up with your essay soon. Offhand I find myself thinking that many sci-fi novels seem to be models. It’s one reason I have trouble with sci-fi, actually — when I read a novel “a model” isn’t what I’m looking for.
I like the conclusion:
“Many economists believe that people spend too much time thinking in terms of stories, and not enough time thinking in terms of models. The more likely problem is that these individuals need better and more informed stories. ”
In other words, the more likely problem is that these individuals have poor taste. I buy the basic argument that models and novels are a subset of a marketplace of ideas generally. And that there are some fairly universal principles of aesthetics that aren’t well accepted by outsiders. What would a world with no outsider art be like though?
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