“The rise of applied economics from the 1970s onward is a consequence of computerization and better data.” This increasingly canonical narrative has the allure of truthiness, and it is therefore surprising that the computerization of economics has never been historicized. Gathering a few important occurrences of economists’ engagement with computers has made me aware of the unclear interplay of hardware, software, econometric theory, modeling, coding, data gathering and policy making. My tentative chronology hints at the many ways in which the development of computers have affected economics, from speeding up econometrics calculations to challenging entrenched conceptions of economic “proof,” from providing new objects of studies to forging new relationship between theory and empirical work, even eliminating the distinction between the two spheres. More specifically, here are the 9 tentative layers of influence I read in it (comments much welcome)
1) Improving calculations: as they were brought by academic and research institutions…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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