To be sure, analytical frameworks are still needed to help make sense of the data. But now there is reason to hope that, in the future, economists’ conclusions and policy advice will be shaped not by those frameworks’ elegance, but by their ability to fit the facts.
这些发展趋势极大地改变着经济学。几十年前，我们只能在相对较小和局限的数据集上做实证分析。诚然，我们仍需要分析框架让数据变得有意义。但如今我们有理由相信未来经济学家的结论和政策建议将不再由框架的优美程度决定，而由它们是否能够符合事实决定。