WHAT ECONOMIC THEORY IS STUDIED?

Picking up the author's ideas on "... complaints that economic theory is like something
floating in the esoteric listen." And no wonder, since it is a social science that the same
characteristics involves a fairly complex world because there are people with similar
problems have to deal with other sciences of the social field even in the same natural
sciences that characterize many times for accuracy and has further the advantage of being
able to experiment in controlled environments as in a laboratory.
"When a theory is evaluated, it is important not to forget that it is invariably imperfect. This
is the case in all branches of science. For example, in physics, Boyle's law relates the
volume, temperature and gas pressure. This law is based on the assumption that the
molecules of a gas behave as if they were tiny elastic billiard balls. Currently, physicists
know that gas molecules do not always behave actually like billiard balls and that's the
reason why Boyle's law is not met under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature.
However, in most circumstances change predicts magnificently as the temperature of a
gas when varying the pressure and volume and, therefore, is essential for engineers and
scientists "(Pindyck, 2009) instrument.

Just as in physical so with the economy, for example, the curves of supply and demand
show relationships between quantities and prices of a particular good, which in many
circumstances clearly explain an inverse relationship in the case of demand and a direct
link in the case of supply, in other cases, we can see other existing relationships by
elasticity. For example, a completely horizontal demand curve, ie a perfectly elastic curve,
"At a given price, the quantity demanded increases indefinitely (tends to infinity)" (Mendez,
2005). But each scenario is key in order to understand the functioning of markets.
Economic theory is also very clear in identifying that price is not the only variable, there
are other variables that also affect the decision to sell and buy a product, such as
monetary income of consumers' tastes and consumers' expectations about the future
themselves, in the case of demand, in the case of supply, technology, taxes and subsidies,
price expectations, among others. And this is precisely the same scientific method,
experience, the ability of economic science like other sciences in order to predict and
explain a phenomenon.

As in all science, lack all to explore and probably always will be, but the "esoteric"
expression fit for the case of disciplines that have no basis in reality, have as show them
and even derive exclusively from value judgments often lead to pointless discussions,
hence the danger of those statements in the economic sphere not supported in theory, "a
theory is a hypothesis that has been successfully tested" (Salvatore, 2009) and it
mathematics play a predominant role . It also implies the magnitude of the importance of
an assertion, since they are involved the lives of people and for this strong professional
skills and expertise in the economics profession are required.
With respect it is a mistake to compare the economy with physics and is best done with
engineering, beyond a discussion of philosophical, it is important to point out that
engineering, their scope is different, "in the words of mathematician Theodore Von
Karman, "the scientist explores what already exists and engineer creates what has never
existed" (Valencia, 2004) and engineering is more related to the "genius" and science "... it
can be considered as the actual amount of scientific knowledge as a research activity or
even as a method of acquiring knowledge ". (Valencia, 2004); although physical
corresponds to the branch of natural science and economics to the branch of social
science, if there is some similarity to the economy, both are sciences, but the resemblance
is striking in the way they operate.

Many physical concepts are extrapolated to the economic sphere, as the concept of
entropy (Alvarez, 2005), also some useful concepts such as "No physicist has ever seen a
unit of force. Well, not no economist has ever seen a utility unit "(Miller, 1996), but are
essential in each of these disciplines, and it is not surprising since our world is so complex
and therefore requires the participation interdisciplinary to solve the problems we face.
What happens is that economic science is a very young science, never ceases to amaze
and satisfy every day with their findings, although it can empirically be the oldest, but
formally it could be said that the modern economy born in the century XVIII with Adam
Smith.

This is not to deny the importance of economic theory would contribute to politics, "given
that political activity is focused on the organization of society and thus to the common
good, its primary goal is human promotion associates "(Galindo, 2005), meanwhile" the
objective of the economy is to analyze and explain the various ways to use resources to
predict their behavior, and establish strategies to strengthen the proper distribution of
goods "(Galindo , 2005), which is a tough task, considering the enormous conflict of
interest involving humans and therefore both sciences, highlights an inability to solve
problems that afflict humans and finally in this vein it seems that the inability to fall on
economic science, it is as if to blame for a war to arms but not to the decisions of men,
which does not make much sense.

On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the theory is a good substitute for data, because
let's not forget, as mentioned above, has already been tested successfully, and for many
problems is not necessary to perform very complex calculations to arrive at an answer,
remember the principle of parsinomia, which says the simplest solution is best to the most
complex, is a feasible guide in science and helps us both to the economy is to serve the
people but not people serving the economy, which sometimes tends to happen, as pointed
out by a prominent economist: "... one of the characteristics of many economists devoted
to public policy, is his talent to block out reality, causing chaos for those living in it "(Max-
Neef, 1986). Instead, the economy should be used to help communities overcome their
vulnerable conditions.

In addition to this the advantage of checking that characterizes all science, economics is
the subject of quantification and therefore estimation, and today more than ever and
thanks to computing aids that enable complex modeling and show us results quickly, we
can get a better understanding of the phenomena and even more, considering the demand
of society no longer satisfied that economic science logical abstractions are made but
result in concrete actions that result in a greater well-being and future.

By Carlos A. Montes M.