NAIROBI—Over the past two decades, feminist economists have scored several policy wins at the national level, ranging from gender-responsive budgets to increased investment in care infrastructure. But change at the international level remains stubbornly slow. The global financial architecture continues to generate policies that depend on women’s labor without accounting for it.

Neil Leslei/Getty Images Economics 4 The Dismally Obedient Science Carolina Alves While empirical inquiry has its place in economics, the pursuit of causality must not be allowed to displace the pursuit of explanation. Beyond identifying causal effects within existing arrangements, economists must investigate how those arrangements are produced, reproduced, and contested. warns that empirical research in economics is displacing investigation of underlying causes.

The Dismally Obedient Science

While empirical inquiry has its place in economics, the pursuit of causality must not be allowed to displace the pursuit of explanation. Beyond identifying causal effects within existing arrangements, economists must investigate how those arrangements are produced, reproduced, and contested.

J Studios/Getty Images Longer Reads 1 Closing Europe’s Dynamism Deficit Carl Benedikt Frey identifies the roots of continental sclerosis, and explains what a successful economic model would look like.

Closing Europe’s Dynamism Deficit

Li Yahui/Xinhua via Getty Images Innovation 0 Technological Leapfrogging in the AI Age Mark-Alexandre Doumba points out that development depends on building indigenous capacity, not mere access to imported innovations.

Technological Leapfrogging in the AI Age

The International Monetary Fund–World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok this month offer an opportunity for policymakers to accelerate that change. More specifically, the first annual cycle of the........

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