Neoclassical economics is sometimes criticized for having a normative bias. In this view, it does not focus on explaining actual economies but instead on describing a "utopia" in which Pareto optimality applies. In the opinion of some developers of an alternative approach, the purpose of neoclassical economics is "to demonstrate the social optimality if the real world were to resemble the model", not "to explain the real world as observed empirically".
In his book Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond, the economist Robert Nelson argued that "the priesthood of a modern secular religion of economic progress" has promoted a narrow interpretation of economic efficiency, disguised in the form of mathematics.
Many people believe that the study of economics is intrinsic in dated and normative concepts that do not represent the current market and economic relations and that occur in real life, outside of books. For this reason, these people criticize the study of economics as an academic thing. They believe that in real life the economy moves at a different pace from that taught by academics and following these outdated concepts ends up hurting economic success, in addition to causing irrational losses and decisions based only on concepts and not on reality.
