From Paul Krugman's blog:

I’m startled at Brad DeLong’s ignorance: he thinks there’s something new about science fiction novels where the science in question is economics.

This theme actually goes back a long way. I once stumbled across Robert Heinlein’s Beyond This Horizon, a very early novel that’s actually inspired by the then-popular doctrine of secular stagnation, which argued that rising savings and declining investment opportunities would lead to persistent problems in getting people to spend enough.

Oh, by the way — it’s a terrible novel, though not as bad a novel as The Internecine Project is a movie. Charles Stross’s Merchant Princes novels, on the other hand, are economic science fiction worth reading.

Update: Several commenters mentioned Issac Asimov’s Foundation novels. It’s somewhat embarrassing, but that’s how I got into economics: I wanted to be a psychohistorian when I grew up, and economics was as close as I could get.

I kind of love the idea that Krugman wanted to be a psychohistorian.

Ah, psychohistory. The idea of this was seductive to me too. But I got no follow through.

Paul Krugman has good taste in Science Fiction. Beyond This Horizon may have been the worst written Heinlein novel ever. The worst Heinlein novel ever Farnham's Freehold was marginally better written, but horribly offensive beyond anything else Heinlein ever wrote.

TB, I can't make that last sentence make sense.

Hope the editing improved it. Farnham's Freehold was better written in that the prose was marginally better, the characterization was marginally better, the plot was marginally more believable. But it had some stuff that was really offensive. Given that the prose and so on was still awful, even if not so awful as BTH, the extreme ick factor outweighed everything else, and made it the worse novel - even if it had slightly better (but still awful) prose and so on.

I loved Farnham's Freehold when I was in my teens and eating up everything Heinlein ever wrote. Perhaps I should revisit it. And then again maybe not.

I've been reluctant to go into specifics. If you like I'll email you offline.

thanks but I think I'd rather retain my illusions.

For future economics I liked Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Stream which postulated all kinds of interesting new business models.

For future psychiatry I really liked Greg Bear's Queen of Angels.

Heh. There are so many books I adored in middle school/early high school that I have not re-read, lest my illusions be spoiled.

Charles Stross’s Merchant Princes novels, on the other hand, are economic science fiction worth reading.

I have these...they're an interesting concept, but I'm not a fan of the characters. A similar concept is present in SM Stirling's "Conquistador"