Tractability Bias in Economics

The piece claims that because it’s easier to formalize simple, well‑functioning markets than messy, failure‑ridden realities, academic economics gravitated toward models that support free‑market conclusions. This methodological bias helped align the field’s public face with libertarian policy even though the originators of the math weren’t libertarian. — If modeling convenience channels disciplines toward certain ideologies, we should scrutinize how methods, not just values, shape policy consensus.