ABSTRACT
The chapter opens with the motivating question of the book: why economics makes less visible progress over time than fields with a strong practical component like, for instance, the computer sciences. It argues that false feedback, that is, false empirical answers to the research questions we pose, is responsible for this slower progress. Scientists working with physical technologies can generally rely on true feedback; they receive true information about whether the steps they have taken did work out or not. In contrast, economists often have to rely on empirical answers that are false but are, nonetheless, hard to recognize as such. This false feedback constantly leads economics into the wrong territory. Knowledge can only grow when steered and hold in check by true empirical answers.
