Well, traditional economic thinking does not _in principle_ have to exclude belief or culture (e.g. one's utility function could well be linked to status, or the well being of others, or some kind of variable due to culture or belief). For example Michelle Gelfand at Stanford, among others, is studying culture using computational models. Super interesting stuff.
But the fact is that economists seem to struggle enough with predictions as of right now, so I can't really blame them for refraining to add culture into the mix. Also I think that for the most part economists aren't the ones responsible for spreading ill-conceived neoliberalist beliefs, this needs to be said.
Well, traditional economic thinking does not _in principle_ have to exclude belief or culture (e.g. one's utility function could well be linked to status, or the well being of others, or some kind of variable due to culture or belief). For example Michelle Gelfand at Stanford, among others, is studying culture using computational models. Super interesting stuff.
But the fact is that economists seem to struggle enough with predictions as of right now, so I can't really blame them for refraining to add culture into the mix. Also I think that for the most part economists aren't the ones responsible for spreading ill-conceived neoliberalist beliefs, this needs to be said.