经济学人双语精读：经济学为何不懂商业

2024年4月23日 文摘

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Why economics does not understand business
经济学为何不懂商业

Dogma gets in the way
教条在作祟

It is the mid-1990s and the economics faculty at a leading business school is meeting. The assembled dons are in a prickly mood. Many are upset that business-school fields, such as marketing and organisational behaviour, enjoy a higher standing despite their apparent lack of rigour. That economics ought to command more respect is keenly felt. One professor can barely contain his scorn. Anyone with a good PHD in economics, he declares, could comfortably teach in any of the school’s other departments.
那是1990年代中期，一所顶尖商学院的经济学系正在开会。与会的教授们满腹牢骚。许多人对商学院的研究领域（如市场营销和组织行为）明显缺乏严谨性但却享有更高的地位而感到不满。大家强烈认为经济学理应得到更多尊重。其中一位教授几乎无法掩饰他的轻蔑。他宣称，任何有像样的经济学博士学位的人都可以轻松地在学院的其他系执教。

It is tempting to see this as a story about the arrogance of economists. And in part, it is. The discipline’s imperialism—its tendency to claim the territory of fields adjacent to economics as its own—is a bugbear of social scientists. Yet the professor had a point. In the 1990s economics could plausibly claim to be moving towards a unified science of business. A realistic theory of the firm was in prospect. Alas, three decades on, it is no closer. Economics has rich models of competition and markets. But its powers still tend to falter once inside the factory gate or office building.
这个故事很容易被解读为经济学家傲慢自大。在某种程度上确实如此。这门学科的帝国主义——它往往将经济学的相关领域都视为自家领地——一向为社会科学家所诟病。然而，这位教授所言也不无道理。在1990年代，经济学似乎有理由声称即将实现商业科学的大一统。一个关于公司的现实理论正呼之欲出。可惜三十年过去了，它仍然遥不可及。经济学有着丰富的竞争和市场模型。但一旦进入工厂大门或写字楼，其威力往往就会土崩瓦解。

  • bugbear 使人烦恼担忧的事；牵挂
  • plausible 表示论点、说法、解释等“貌似合理的、似乎真实可信的”（参见：小词详解 | plausible）
  • alas （表示悲伤或遗憾）哎呀，唉
  • falter 衰弱、衰退、衰落

It is worth asking why. Economics is—or at least is supposed to be—about the allocation of scarce resources. In neoclassical theory, markets take centre stage. The factors of production (land, labour and capital) and the supply and demand of goods and services move in response to price signals from market exchange. Resources go to the most profitable use.
探讨个中缘由很有必要。经济学是（至少应该是）关于稀缺资源分配的学问。在新古典主义理论中，市场占据了核心位置。生产要素（土地、劳动力和资本）以及商品和服务的供需随着市场交换的价格信号而变化。资源流向最有利可图的地方。