Why is it difficult to answer questions on Economics.SE?

Question

Not criticism, but a couple of observations.

Math.SE and StackOverflow are very successful because questions there are self-contained. You have a very specific problem and it's easy to solve it when you know the field.

Economics.SE has questions that, well, depend. For example, a question I liked, Is foreign-financed Basic Income Guarantee inflationary?, is difficult to answer since it requires details (does current balance remain constant, should we count the substitution effect in, etc.). Nothing new; economics is about models that give conditional answers.

Still, does it make sense (and if yes, then how) to incentivize questions with more details or answers that contain references to complex models?

Answer 1

Good question. I think it will happen both ways. In some cases the OP will be asked for more details (supposedly this is "the .SE way" so that the question becomes more clear and focused). And sometimes he will provide them (See for example my exchange in the comments with EnergyNumbers here).

In other cases he won't, or the answerer may opt directly to "fill in the missing assumptions", describing in some detail the model in the context of which he will give his answer. I consider both legitimate and useful approaches/cases.