In his review, Murray goes on to say that Professor Daniel Klein and nine other professors of the field might be troubled by what they read in the book What Do Economists Contribute? Murray sees Klein, of Santa Barbara University, as one of the most engaging and creative economist around but according to him, the contributions of economists might not lead to human betterment.
One of the reasons why the public abstains from economists’ advice is probably because some seek to promote personal interests rather than contributions for human betterment. This idea relates to the review’s written advice to economists- seek “light” not “fruits”. This guidance can be of help to avoid the misapplications of economic insight.
The review makes reference to George Stigler and Israel Kirzner on how they both agree that economic advice is not valuable. What is valuable however, is Murray’s idea that economists can make a valuable contribution by correcting their errors. According to the review, some of these errors are for instance the lack of attention to property rights or entrepreneurship in economic textbooks and such neglect can lead to a false probability approach or unrealistic thinking as described by Philbrook. Unfortunately for the economists, this statement supports W.H. Hutt’s belief that “the findings of the analytical economist do not necessarily spill over to benefit society.”
Before any TAMIU student decides to reconsider his or her career in economics, two last thoughts mentioned in the book review are perhaps worthy of considering: One, that an economist can benefit society by doing research that exposes inefficient government policies, and two, that the economist must have the courage to be unpopular.