There is a growing consensus that the “economics profession must be open to new ideas and frameworks if it hopes to solve the world’s biggest problems” – Gita Bhatt. John Maynard Keynes, memorializing the death of his mentor, Alfred Marshall, a century ago, wrote that the “master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts… He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher.” Keynes might have been describing himself. He considered economics a moral science that must draw on a wide culture while keeping an “open mind to the shifting picture of experience.”
Today, the world urgently needs that rare combination Keynes described to guide the way through disruptions from climate change, artificial intelligence, demographic change, social and economic inequality, and geopolitical conflicts.
This is particularly true given growing disenchantment with the economics profession and calls for the discipline to change to better reflect individual and societal values. Extensive professional soul-searching since the global financial crisis of 2008 has focused on how economics can better integrate social sciences and elevate welfare and distributional issues.
