ELLIS SCHARFENAKER

My aim in teaching is to enrich students’ perspectives on the social world by introducing them to a framework in which complex phenomena can be understood through theory development and empirical investigation. I emphasize that economics is a mode of social inquiry—one that seeks to make intelligible the patterns and institutions of social life, and which must remain open to revision in light of new evidence or conceptual refinement. Theory, in this view, is not static dogma but a dynamic set of tools for navigating and interpreting a complex and evolving world.

I emphasize the philosophical and political dimensions of economics as a discipline and place its development within a broader historical and scientific context. I aim to communicate that economics is a tradition of inquiry that is not reducible to formalism or model-building for its own sake, but is instead concerned with the elaboration of the logic of social reproduction, conflict, and coordination. Theories are to be judged not simply by internal consistency, but by their explanatory power and empirical adequacy.

I organize my courses around four core pedagogical principles. First, I stress the importance of interdisciplinary work. Economics must draw on philosophy, mathematics, and the historical and social sciences in order to be relevant to the most pressing and sophisticated questions of modern society. I encourage students to pursue synthesis across fields and to treat economic reasoning as part of a broader intellectual project.

Second, I emphasize the personal engagement of students with ideas. My aim is to empower students to develop their own conceptual understanding and to articulate reasoned judgments. I structure my classes to promote student-led inquiry, sustained engagement with texts, and collaborative discussion.

Third, I emphasize the importance of confronting theory with evidence. This requires both conceptual clarity and technical dexterity. I place a strong focus on the role of computability and complexity in economic reasoning, especially in my courses on econometrics and Bayesian statistics. Economics, particularly in its empirical practice, is a science of inference under constraints. I introduce students to programming-based approaches using R, Stan, Mathematica, and Large Language Models (LLMs) to solve and simulate economic models, estimate parameters, and test hypotheses. I also explore how computational techniques can expose structural limits and indeterminacies in economic models, especially in high-dimensional and network-based settings.

Fourth, I use collaborative formats—especially seminars and workshops—to model how economic knowledge is developed through dialogue and critical engagement. My courses involve frequent writing assignments, empirical research projects, and in-class experiments to foster both analytical and applied thinking.

Ultimately, my goal is to help students understand economics as a tradition of inquiry into the logic and dynamics of complex social systems—systems whose analysis requires a combination of formal abstraction, empirical rigor, and critical reflection. I aim to cultivate in students the capacity to think independently, model rigorously, and reason historically about economic life.