David Card, professor da Universidade da Califórnia - Berkeley e ganhador da Medalha John Bates Clark - 1997, em uma entrevista para The Region - a revista da seção de Minneapolis do Federal Reserve Bank -, tem um entendimento similar ao de Mankiw quanto a como classificar os economistas. Com alguma edição, eis sua interpretação:
"Economics as a whole is really a combination of two kinds of people: those who are very practically oriented and those who are more like mathematical philosophers. The mathematical philosophers get most of the attention. They deal with the big unanswerable questions. The practically oriented economists try to be more scientific: looking for very specific predictions and trying to test these as carefully as possible. The mathematical philosophers get very frustrated by the practical economists. They come up with a broad general theory, and we tell them it doesn't fit the evidence. Practical economists need to know the basic nuts and bolts of our field. That's why we get paid reasonably well. On average, philosophers don't get paid much".
