With university humanities courses going into decline, there is a serious need for a rethink on societal values. One of them being the high importance pinned on economics. The subject has several claims to glory, yet its practitioners are not covering themselves in similar glory now. Repeatedly have they failed to predict the market upheavals, yet they bear little humility. In a survey conducted by a team from the Northwestern University, it was deduced that while around three-fourths of sociologists and psychologists believe in inter-disciplinary engagement, barely two-fifths of economists think likewise. Literature in particular provides great insight into human behavior, which can be an ideal asset in ensuring the best of talent management practices. Unlike economics, in literature things do not get simplified just for the sake of it. If one considers the works of the likes of Leo Tolstoy, Jane Austen, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Elliot and of course William Shakespeare, one can find layers of complicated personalities. Human beings do not always act rationally, something which economists assume, but was rejected by Adam Smith himself. Economists must learn from other fields such as literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history and political science in order to develop more realistic models.

Source:http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/could-a-bit-of-tolstoy-and-austen-improve-economic-forecasting/

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018