Ideas Count, Words Inform

Ideas count. The leadership community’s and the public’s perceptions of the effects of alternative policies may differ significantly from each other, as well as from an economist’s perception of these effects. Some of these differences are questions of social science — whether any hypothesised effect will or will not result from a specified policy. Perhaps more often they are differences of social values. Different groups will be aware of and concerned about the different economic, social, and political effects of the actions economists would see as economic policy.