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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:19:12 2006 |
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==================== HES POSTING ====================
"ECONOMIC", programmatically and philospohically
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Some of what I have said about "real" and its family might be said about
"economic" too. Economists use the terms
economic efficiency
economic profit
in contrast to
engineering efficiency, technological efficiency, etc
accounting profit, operating profit, etc
to denote both their subject matter (programmatic use of "economic" to say
what should be the object of study) and to make claims regarding what is
important (philosophical, perhaps I should say theoretical, tenets about
the presumed object of study).
Thus economic efficiency is what economists study and engineering
efficiency is what engineers study. But economists also say, in effect,
"engineers make the mistake of studying engineering efficiency".
----Paul
Paul Wendt
Subscriptions Editor, HES
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