&gt; most of the models used in Economics are based on abstract reasoning about &quot;ideal&quot; markets and actors (or more recently on game-theoretic ideas) instead of experimental data.<p>Essentially it&#x27;s like pre-Enlightenment Natural Philiosophy, in that it&#x27;s a discipline that claims to explain the way the world works, but actually explains who has the most sway in getting their ideas accepted.<p>&gt; ...should provide ample data to develop &quot;real&quot; models of economic behavior against, and I think that many researchers actually already make use of this data.<p>I suspect reality will get about as much traction against idealogues of e.g. the Chicago School as actual climate science does agains useful idiots like Bjørn Lomborg.  It&#x27;s about providing views that happen to be useful to moneyed interests, not reality.