Paul Krugman and economics models

During my quest to understand the mental models used by economists, I came across a fascinating 20 year-old article by Paul Krugman. The article’s title is ‘How I Work’ and it outlines Krugman’s basic rules for conducting interesting research. The reason the article is fascinating to me is that it provides a rare insight into how a leading economist thinks about economics rather than merely what he thinks.

The article includes a number of interesting insights into Krugman’s background. For example, he makes the following observation about what distinguishes the way he thinks, and his attitude to models, from most other economists.

Most young economists today enter the field from the technical end. Originally intending a career in hard science or engineering, they slip down the scale into the most rigorous of the social sciences. The advantages of entering economics from that direction are obvious: one arrives already well trained in mathematics, one finds the concept of formal modeling natural. It is not, however, where I come from. My first love was history; I studied little math, picking up what I needed as I went along.

Paul Krugman