经济学与经济学人概论(ppt 31页)(英文)

Economics has become the most popular major in the universities of the United States and why?
But this does not say economics is an easy science.  On the contrary, economics has never met greater challenges as it tries to address an increasing array of questions  posted by rapid technological progress and the integration of global markets (globalization).  The conduct of the US monetary policy is a case in point.
Challenge to economics
Economic theory is built upon the past “regularity” as much as the laws in natural sciences.  However, economics is an imperfect science since its object of study - human economic behavior – even presumed to be rationale, which has been challenged lately, cannot be modeled and predicted with precision.  Rapid structural change and technological progress, and the integration of global markets render economic behavior even more difficult to predict. The lack of predictive power tilts economics toward an art, away from science.

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