Economists must think broader – or risk becoming irrelevant | Mohamed El-Erian

The profession must adopt a more open mindset and embrace diversity if it is to regain trust

The economics profession took a beating after most of its leading practitioners failed to predict the 2008 global financial crisis and it has been struggling to recover ever since. Not only were the years after the crash marked by unusually low, unequal growth; now we are witnessing a growing list of economic and financial phenomena that economists cannot readily explain.

Like the Queen, who famously asked in November 2008 why nobody had seen the crisis coming, many citizens have grown increasingly sceptical of economists' ability to explain and predict economic developments, let alone offer sound guidance to policymakers. Some surveys rank economists among the least-trusted professionals (after politicians, of course, whose trust economists have also lost). A solid economic training is no longer regarded as a must-have for candidates for top positions in finance ministries and central banks. This marginalisation has further weakened economists' ability to inform and influence decision-making on issues that relate directly to their expertise (or what they would call their comparative and absolute advantage).

Related: Anxiety running high about London's future as a financial centre | Barry Eichengreen

A discipline long dominated by 'high priests' must now adopt a more open mindset