Intervention, policy and responsibility: Economics as over-engineered expertise?

It is widely agreed that economists disagree, but it is also acknowledged that they do so according to common commitments. Perhaps the most peculiar, and thus uncommon, commonality is that economists take it as a given that the role of the economist extends to intervention in public discourse and public policy. If socialised as an economist, it is easy to miss how odd this is. From “speaking as an economist” flows framing analytics, constraining theoretical formulations and a seal of approval. Economists’ expertise saturates social inquiry, and this in turn is saturated by small “p” politics through the way values are treated in knowledge formation. This is as significant as large “P” political ideas. It percolates into policy from the ways economics is situated. This is one important way in which responsibility becomes an issue, and it is this I address in what follows.