1a. Is economics a science

Yes, Economics is a science

• Like other sciences, economists deal with large scale issues and require large scale experiments to truly test ideas
• Basic challenges researchers face are not different from the challenges in other fields of study
• Challenges faced by economists are not necessarily different to scientists in other fields. Challenges are overcome through developing tools that obtain answers through experimentation
• Economics tests old theories and formulates new ones that have been adapted based on findings
• Economics is a study of people and decision making which is often backed by maths and data and uses analytical methods

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No, Economics is not a science

• Economics is more concerned with making predictions and does not necessarily follow laws in the same way physical science might
• Models used involve people, therefore the need for approximating is much stronger
• Economists ability to carry out experiments is severely limited by the need to do it on such a wide scale and the potential impact it would have on peoples livelihoods
• There tends to be multiple people in the same field who have opposing ideas. People can interpret data differently and propose different policies based on the same information
• There may be a political bias in information and might not always be fact based

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