----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Let me lift a paragraph from my new book, The Perverse Economy, to note an excellent example of the gap between economics and science. In 1978, Koopmans delivered the presidential address to the American Economic Association (Koopmans 1979). His lecture concerned the difficulties that economists had in communicating with natural scientists. Koopmans was not speaking out of ignorance of the ways of natural science. In fact, he had earned a degree in quantum physics. Koopmans explained to a meeting of the American Physical Association in 1979 that he initially decided to switch from physics to economics because he felt the physical sciences were far ahead of the social and economic sciences. (cited in Mirowski 2002, p. 251). Michael Perelman ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]