Economic policy is hampered by the unknowable – or “radical uncertainty” – but simply talking to people in the economy can help overcome this, a working paper published by the Bank of England finds.

Authors David Tuckett, Douglas Holmes, Alice Pearson and Graeme Chaplin note modern monetary policy-making is not solely based on theory, because theory can never fully explain “what is happening in a dynamic evolving economy”.

Exploring this “means gauging the possible advantage of treating all