I wrote this a few years ago (about 2014) and it still appears on my university department’s website. My thinking has evolved since then, but it is instructive where my thought was then.
Economists are unique in their approach to data analytics due to their unique training. They are story tellers, they are able to articulate problems and to take a rigorous approach to the solution of those problems. They understand the importance to understand the question: “why?”
Economists own causality and understand observational data, some are even said to be obsessed with the data generating process. Economists have a a strong linear regression toolkit and are well familiar with the processes that push beyond that level of rigor. Economists understand minimizing and maximizing of objective functions under constraint.
Read more: Economists in Data Analytics