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Economics is often thought to be counter-intuitive, including its most basic concepts. Over at EconLog, Bryan Caplan wonders whether this is really so.

However, the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that if basic economics seems counterintuitive, it’s being poorly explained.  If Bastiat could make econ intuitive, so can we.

He then goes on to provide intuitive explanations for some basic economic ideas, and — to avoid cherry picking — challenges his readers to come up with examples that he can’t make intuitive.

I wonder if he’s right. Two questions spring to mind.

1. Isn’t everything intuitive once you truly understand it? Certainly these economic concepts seem intuitive to me (and probably more so to Caplan), but I have some training in the subject and am used to the mode of thinking. Perhaps if I lacked previous knowledge I would find it harder to wrap my head around these ideas. I’m not sure how much there is to this.
2. I predict the following response from econ-skeptics: “Sure, that seems intuitive, but then that’s not really how it works, is it?” In the same sense that an architect’s drawings are not the building, the implied statement is certainly true, but the question is if it’s relevant.

My guess is that Caplan is mostly right. It would be interesting to know what Robert H. Frank makes of it.

Update: Bryan Caplan steps up to the challenge in this follow-up post.

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