TOWARDS A NEW WAY OF TEACHING STATISTICS IN ECONOMICS: THE CASE FOR ECONOPHYSICS

Year 2015, Volume: 4 Issue: 3, 89 - 108, 01.09.2015

Çınla Akdere Christophe Schinckus

Abstract

The selection of an appropriate way to measure data has long challenged economists. Analogies referring to scientific methods, concepts, and theories coming from the hard sciences (especially chemistry and physics) have repeatedly been used in economics since its earliest days. Today, the ambition of all university economics departments is to offer a thorough-going education in the discipline that is as scientific as possible. In fact, this is what has led academic institutions to incorporate mathematics and statistics courses into their economics departments. This statistics-based character of economics has been well documented in the literature, since it has literally shaped the “scientificity” widely promoted in the field: statistics provide an empiricist foundation to economics. This paper aims to further explore the influence of physics, in particular, on economics, focusing on the recent advent of “econophysics.” We contend that the emergence of this new sub-field should be regarded as a conceptual\theoretical benefit for those teaching statistics to economics students.

Keywords

Econophysics, econometrics, teaching and statistics

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