Can we learn to ask better questions as economists?

Evolutionary musicologist, Joseph Jordania, observes in his book, `Who asked the first question?’, that our closest ancestors i.e. apes, don’t have the capacity to formulate questions. While they have abundant natural curiosity, they lack the ability to articulate it as a question. Jordania further explains that a question is “materialised curiosity” and it galvanises other members of the community to become involved in settling the problem. Thus, the ability to ask questions marks a step in human cognitive evolution. Mike Vaughn, speaking on the matter of asking better questions in a TEDx talk, underlines its importance. Today, we are at a stage of development, where computers are continuously getting better at answering questions and solving problems. Thus, our ability to ask questions will be the only way in which we stay relevant and shape our future. As a researcher in the field of economics, I ask myself if one could learn ways to formulate better questions. Some might ask, why make an exception out of economics (as the title of this article also suggests)? My  extreme myopia as a result of belonging to the field of economics notwithstanding, I merely intend to make the question-asking process more explicit for myself and for those entering this or related fields. Hence, the pointed reference to economists.

Infographic borrowed from TEDx talk, 'How to ask better questions'

After delving into this problem, I have learnt that the words we use to frame a question is what distinguishes a good question from a bad one. A good question probes assumptions that underlie a statement and often times, leads us to wonder if we actually know something as well as we think we do. A bad question, on the other hand, is phrased in a way that merely seeks to reinforce an existing opinion. Going even further, a good question can be framed optimally by focusing attention on something new that can be learnt from undertaking to answer it.  For instance, economists have long held that higher interest rates lower investment - for obvious reasons. Raj Chetty, a renowned Indian-American economist, as a high-school student asked his teacher, if higher interest rates couldn’t sometimes raise investment. This question subsequently, led to his 2004 paper, titled ‘Interest rates and backward-bending investment’ which provided clues as to why the investment demand curve was non-monotonic (i.e. neither increasing nor decreasing with respect to interest rates) in the real world.  A second facet to getting better at asking questions as economists, relates to the attitude we maintain. An attitude of healthy scepticism towards stated facts  helps to uncover hidden aspects of the issue,  as opposed to, an attitude where one is always quick to appreciate what is authoritatively stated (although one may want to temper the skepticism, so as to not be labelled as a prick). Suppose, a researcher says, "Solution X had a beneficial effect on Y ergo, solution X should be widely implemented".  A sceptic, instead of saying “Brava!” (the imaginary person in question happens to be Italian) would ask, “As compared to what?”. Here, this sceptical umano would like to understand the opportunity cost of implementing solution X to understand if it’s the most efficient solution. Many other questions can be asked from this simple statement– from “Who is-a thiss Y?” to “Couldn't Y be a special case?”.  And such incessant questioning sometimes leads to a reframing of the problem in a way that is path-breaking, rather than just incremental.

I started this article with the question asked in the the title hovering in my head. After riveting forays into lessons from the tech-industry (co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel’s idea of ‘Zero to one’ thinking) and into the philosophical underpinnings of research (I didn’t go too far after logical positivism, thank the Almighty!), I decided to talk about these simple, but hopefully, powerful ways of boosting one’s scientific credentials.  Asking good questions may be the one thing we all needed to do to break mental barriers, boost personal creativity and lead innovation and so, it will be important to keep revisiting how we get there.