Panelists Challenge Traditional Economics

Martin S. Feldstein '61, Baker professor of economics, has a monopoly on the teaching of economics at Harvard.

Or at least Sonia Kastner '03, vice president of the College Democrats, thinks so.

Kastner organized "Ec 10 ½," a forum held last night intended to broaden students' perspectives on the subject of economics.

Kennedy School Lecturer Richard J. Parker and Divinity School Fellow Julie Nelson discussed the more liberal

aspect of economics at the forum--something Parker said is largely ignored in Feldstein's popular lecture course, "Ec 10."

Contrary to popular belief, Parker said, economics has a closer resemblance to religion than it has to physics.

He called economics a faith-based system--and not an exact science.

He said economics has traditionally not been a field in which everyone agrees, and said there needs to be a fundamental reform of the curriculum of Ec 10 to reflect divergent opinions.

"Professor Feldstein is wrong," Parker joked. "He was wrong about microeconomics and he will be wrong about macroeconomics."

"Listening to Feldstein is akin to listening to Cotton Mather," he quipped.

Parker stressed that economics can only be understood through the lense of society.

He said states provide police, a judicial system, armies and an arena for a national economy, and markets can only be understood through values that a society's inhabitants decide are permissable.

"Markets don't exist without states," he said. "Economics is about invention,

not discovery."

Nelson spoke next, stressing the fact that the function of the economy is dependent on outside factors.

Nelson, a specialist in feminist economics, stated that the neoclassical approach to economics misses out on issues related to women, and the field of economics ignores those who work

because they care about what they do.

Anthony S.A. Freinberg '04 attended the event and said he was glad to learn of alternatives to Feldstein's views on economics and morality.

"I thought that this was an exciting alternative viewpoint to the limited and biased opinions of Marty Feldstein," he said.

Kastner said she plans to repeat the event next year.

"I think it was a success," she said. "I was impressed with the intellectual quality of the audience. They were informed and came in with an open mind."