BRIDGETOWN—We tend to think of a country’s assets in terms of natural resources, technology, and capital. But equally important is its ability to shape its own future, as opposed to having its development determined mainly by external factors.

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

Major global stressors in recent years have brought this reality into sharper focus. COVID-19, rising interest rates, energy-price spikes, and an intensifying climate crisis have forced many small states into perpetual firefighting mode. For the most indebted and least diversified economies, each new upheaval has pushed aside years of planning, leading to calls for higher investment in resilience. And yet resilience alone is not enough, because a country can do everything right and still end up worse off if it lacks genuine agency.

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