ECONOMISTS welcomed last week’s Nobel prize announcement as confirming the
rise of their discipline as a real science. The work of James Heckman and Daniel
McFadden—which has been used to assess everything from environmental
clean-ups to job-training programmes—allows economists to measure
accurately the impact of the choices people make in life. “Applications in
economics can get lost, but these two are at the forefront of empirical
testing,” says Oliver Linton of the London School of Economics.
Economics is often criticised for its inability to use standard scientific
techniques such as placebos or control groups. But economists still want…
