From what we have been told, what makes science science is the ability to perform controlled experiments to verify or reject hypotheses. However due to the nature of economics and the fact that there are far too many factors like sociology and psychology to control for, it’s impossible to do controlled experiments in the economy. Why is it considered a branch of science?
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You added the “controlled” part to the definition of science.
Take it out, as you should, and economics is unquestionably a science.
Unfortunately, it can be an especially navel-gazing one. When I was studying it at Harvard, the professors loved to build detailed numeric models based on, say, 5 assumptions, none of which was even close to being true. Then others would critique or expand those models. You could build an entire career without actually considering the real world at all. That fact, among others, led me away from economics as a pursuit.
After I graduated, the University of Chicago decided to actually consider the real world as it built its economic models, and several Nobel prizes were the result. I just shook my head.
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