Roads not (yet) taken: Some times when more mathematical structure might have helped in the progress of Economics

Abstract

At more than a few points in the history of economic thought, a promising modeling strategy or line of research has stagnated, failed to deliver actionable results, or been abandoned. I would like to suggest that in many cases, researchers have been forced to throw away too much problem structure in the pursuit of tractability, and that newer modeling technology could solve that problem.
It makes sense to look for applications of new mathematical modeling techniques at the cutting edge of economics as it is currently practiced, as well as by reasoning about the domain from first principles. I would suggest that it’s also worthwhile, in between these two extremes, to revisit stalled (or perhaps “paused”) modeling efforts from the past, to see if the ability to handle more of the relevant structure can unlock new insights going forward.
This talk will highlight a few currently overlooked modeling agendas in economics, in the hope that one or more of them may provide some inspiration for working applied category theorists with an interest in economic applications. Time permitting, examples will include Input-Output modeling, Flow-of-Funds accounting, and the Cambridge capital controversy, with a possible digression into survey weighting methods.