Impressive or persuasive

Prof. Colander of Middlebury College reviews a book in last September's Journal of Economic Literature. The book, Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics, gets thumbs-down from Prof. Colander. It is not surprising considering the impossibility of understanding the title of the book. What interests me most is Prof. Colander's attitude toward economists' policy work and the field's measurement misalignment of research contributions. He says,

This overformalization leads to policy analysis that looks impressive, rather than is persuasive to policymakers.

Yes, he is talking about complicated mathematical models. Math is good and important, but we have to get the story right before digging deep into math derivations. That is also my personal belief on economic research.

Prof. Colander also pokes fun at the sociologist writers. As economists use math to look impressive, sociologists use language to impress. He says,

Language-the medium of sociologists and science scholars-imposes fewer limits, which makes it easier for them to obfuscate.

Thus the obfuscating title of the book.