Talk:Unsolved problems in economics

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Contents 1 AfD Result Notice 2 General Discussion 3 This is a horrible article 4 This article needs a more appropriate name

[edit] AfD Result Notice

This article was the subject of an AfD discussion closed on 20 August 2006. The result was Keep. Xoloz 18:06, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] General Discussion

"How does price formation occur" -- this sounds like a really silly question. Somebody makes a sticker. Where is the problem?

The problem is, we don't really understand how a firm determines what price to price a product at. Do firms use value added pricing? Do firms analyze demand curves to determine elasticity and revenue maximizing price? Or do they somehow estimate profit maximizing price? Also, in theory, in a competitive market prices adjust so that demand = supply, however, no single firm ever changes it's price, they just take price as given by the market, so how do prices ever adjust? --144.214.42.129 06:06, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

That's all very nice, but in the end different entitites do it differently. Would it be better to pose this problem "Classify all pricing methods." or "Classify all viable pricing methods."

There are very few good models of price formation in a competitive equalibrium. If you feel that this is trivial, the field would greatly appriciate your contribution. Of the listed open questions, this is the only one I have heard directly mentioned in a grad level course as an important open question.

Economics is not a science, so I would dispute the inclusion of this item in the unsolved problems category.

Economics is a science, but lets not have a dispute about that here. Enough to say that economists believe that economics is a science, so lets just take their word for it. --144.214.42.129 06:06, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

"What is the proper size and scope of government?" I think the issue has pretty much been dealt with at the theoretical level (Externalities, Second Best, Public Goods). The problem is that reality is too fuzzy to answer the question exactly.

"What is the proper size and scope of government?" This is more a philosophical than economic question. Economics can potentially identify what government maximizes production, but that isn't necessarily the "proper" one.

[edit] This is a horrible article

The greatest unsolved problem of economics is to distinguish communists, Rubinomicists, etc, from legitimate economists. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.140.5.249 (talk) 05:48, 16 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] This article needs a more appropriate name

I wouldn't call these problems unsolved problems - most of the "problems" listed are economic issues with competing explanations. As far as I know many of the unsolved problems, or rather debate, in research economics concern with the empirical measurement of theoretical concepts. The lack of citations - in where have people acknowledged that these are "unsolved problems" - also makes this list looking rather dubious. About a decade ago there is a "column" in the Journal of Economic Perspectives where a author discussed some observations where they cannot find any explanations. A list such as this is supposed to be a good representation of what is going on in economics research. Therefore a list derived from reputable sources such as JEP or refereed journals with high impact factors would be convincing, blogs written by well respected economists (or well downloaded / high ranking economists from the IDEA website) is also acceptable, but all other magazines should be ruled out or only seen as secondary sources. Pelikan400119:34 6 June 2008 UTC