economics and literature
a closer relationship than we think
As being someone who is studying public finance and being so interested in literature and poetry, I never thought of the idea that there might be some connection between them, until couple days ago I’ve encountered a research saying how poetry can be used at teaching economics. I was just so delighted to see it. You may think that economics and literature have little or maybe even nothing in common. I hear you saying “literature is about the expression of feelings and emotions while economics is all about calculations and models” but hear me out for a bit.
When I dived into details, I’ve seen that associate professor Mary E. Davis at TUFTS University believes that rhyme, meter, form and expression may help students better understand and remember such complex concepts as marginal utility or consumer equilibrium.
Hers is one of four projects awarded a seed grant from Tufts Innovates, a program aimed at developing imaginative ideas to enhance learning and teaching across the university. This is one of the most recent examples of the relationship.
However, there is history to this relationship as well. E. Aznar and J. Lallement, in their article, had a closer look at the roots of this.
According to them, since the birth of political economy in the 17th century, maybe even before literature has been the place for broadcasting economic ideas that reflected the situation of that day and then idealizing them. In contrast, economists took advantage of the storytelling ability of the literature and developed ways to better share their own thoughts and criticism.
It is sometimes said that the 1848 Revolution in France established a clear-cut divorce between economics and literature. Similar breaking points may have occurred at different times in different countries. Later on, economists that were against the use of mathematical symbolism and reasoning would be labelled “économistes littéraires”.
I want to approach the ongoing relationship, albeit a weak one today, with the definition of ‘economist’ that evolves over time. Fatma Ünlü, a professor at the Hacı Bayram Veli University in Turkey, describes an economist as “one who can tomorrow explain why yesterday’s predictions didn’t come true today. The point I want to draw attention that also relates to the literature is ‘the explanation part’. Of course, statistic and mathematics are essential tools for an economist. Still, here I want to remind you of the description of ‘economics’ made by Alfred Marshall (1842–1924, that is “ a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life”. Consequently, humans, as the main subject of economics, are also the main area o study for economists. Therefore, I believe the best economist is the one who grasps exactly what fear, hope, desire, need, love, and life is. Capturing these emotions helps to greatly understand the choices of people that economists work on.
Returning to the part of explaining tomorrow. It is the issue that economists are expected to be the most successful at, because predictability matters.
In the end, we should acknowledge that both economics and literature are highly relevant fields, exploring the same topics and ideas in different languages.
No economist is a good economist who doesn’t know what it is to be a human.
References:
https://medium.com/@brendanmarkeytowler/poetry-and-economicsmaintaining-our-link-to-humanity-532785047f0e https://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/443 https://qz.com/1275281/the-most-important-books-for-economists-arentacademic-ones/amp/
