Diane Coyle on Cogs, Monsters, and Better Economics

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2022

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

Mainstream economics, says author Diane Coyle, keeps treating people like cogs: self-interested, rational agents. But in the digital economy, we're less sophisticated consumer and more monster under the influece of social media. Listen as the economist and former UK Treasury advisor tells EconTalk host Russ Roberts how, for economics to remain relevant, it needs both more diverse methodologies and more engagement with the broader issues of the day.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:07.8	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover
0:12.7	Institution.
0:13.7	Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode and find links down
0:18.6	the information related to today's conversation.
0:21.4	You'll also find our archives, but every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.8	Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
0:30.3	We'd love to hear from you.
0:38.0	Today is April 28, 2022.
0:40.1	My guest is economist and author Diane Coil.
0:43.8	This is Diane's fourth appearance on econtalk.
0:47.2	She was last year in April of 2014 talking about GDP.
0:52.0	Our topic for today is related to book, COGS and Monsters, what economics is and what
0:58.0	it should be.
0:59.6	Diane, welcome back to econtalk.
1:02.6	Thank you for inviting me back again.
1:04.9	Let's start with the title.
1:07.8	COGS and Monsters, what do you have in mind there?
1:12.1	The COGS are us, the individuals and the, it's a reference to the way economics thinks
1:19.0	about individual choice, methodological individualism as the modus operandi in the way we do our
1:25.1	analysis.
1:26.1	The Monsters is a reference to those old maps from medieval times when the areas that were
	...

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