The Tower of Babel of Economics: Is a Universal Translator Possible?

Abstract

Starting from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel and the origin of different languages, this article elaborates on the idea that economics is fragmented into distinct schools or currents that are unable to communicate effectively. Traditionally, this difficulty in communication is attributed to different methodologies for investigating and recommending economic policies, reflecting mainly political and temporal and local context disagreements. This article argues that part of the incomprehensibility between different schools of economic thought does not stem from these inherent factors of disagreement, but from extrinsic factors related to the absence of a universal translator among economists. Therefore, the dimension of language needs to be treated with great attention so that economists not only communicate better with the public, but mainly with each other. By performing two exercises to think about the feasibility of a universal translator, the argument is made that it is possible to establish an intelligible channel of dialogue between members of different schools, at least on specific topics.