Totally bonkers: economists using science to approach "social science" issues. Social sciences should be ashamed that this is not the norm, we should all be startled and surprised that this is a new thing and evidently people have just been using a system of high-fives and good wishes to solve the world's social problems.
Before we pile on the social sciences, maybe someone familiar with them can tell us why RCTs are so hard to do. There are likely other issues involved that make RCTs very difficult -- I'm guessing some ethical issues at least. I doubt social scientists and economists are just a bunch of idiots or charlatans. Likewise, the recent breakthrough wouldn't be such a breakthrough if it had been easier. I don't have an Econo…
In economics, you are studying vast systems. For the majority of questions, it is impossible to isolate some part of the system and control and measure all the inputs and outcomes. That's probably obvious for macroeconomics: You can't have FED raise or lower interest rates based on a random number generator. And even if you could, you would still need a second United States to act as the control group.
It's mostly also true for microeconomics. Consider the difficulty of studying UBI. The largest such studies gave a basic income to a small African village, for a limited time of maybe two years. But the idea, and its opponents, mostly deal with the life choices people make, requiring essentially life-long guarantees. And even just knowing to be part of such a study, or continuing to live in a society that hasn't changed, is likely or at least plausible to change the outcome to render the study meaningless.