On the Quantity Bias in Economics

Much has been written in recent years about the undue (and potentially adverse) emphasis of orthodox economics on GDP growth. Far less attention has been paid to the growing quantity bias in orthodox economics, and to the ever increasing fascination in broader society with numbers and quantitative data. We contend that the GDP growth bias is inextricably linked to the quantity bias and, moreover, that orthodox economics has catalyzed and reinforced this relationship of cumulative causation. In this context, we find instrumental valuation to be important both in helping identify the quantity bias and in critically analyzing and evaluating it.