Why has economics turned out this way?’ A socio-economic note on the explanation of monism in economics.

Heise, Arne (2016): Why has economics turned out this way?’ A socio-economic note on the explanation of monism in economics. Published in: The Journal of Philosophical Economics , Vol. X, No. 1 (2016): pp. 81-101.

Abstract

Economic science has – lamented by some, applauded by others – turned into a monistic discipline. In this short research note, a socio-economic answer to the question of why this has happened is provided by combining an economic approach to the market for economic ideas with a sociological approach to a scientific (power) field.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: pluralism, monism, heterodoxy, standardization, regulation
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A14 - Sociology of Economics; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B40 - General; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B50 - General; L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L15 - Information and Product Quality ; Standardization and Compatibility

References

Albert, M. (2006); Product quality in scientific competition, Discussion Papers on Strategic Interaction 2006-6, Max-Planck-Institut für Ökonomik, Jena

Arrow, K.J. (1951); Social Choice and Individual Values, New Haven (:Yale University Press)

Arthur, B. (1989); Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events; in: The Economic Journal, Vol. 99, pp. 116 - 131

Bartels, L.M. (2008); Unequal Democracy. The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, Princeton (:University Press)

Berger, P.L., Luckmann, T. (1966); The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Garden City (NY)

Caldwell, B.J. (1988); The case for pluralism; in: N. de Marchi (Hg.); The Popperian Legacy in Economics, Cambridge (:University Press), S. 231 – 244

Carlin, W., Soskice, D. (2006); Macroeconomics. Imperfections, Institutions and Policies, Oxford (:University Press)

Coase, R. H. (1974a); The Lighthouse in Economics; in: Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 357 – 376

Coase, R.H. (1974b); The Market for Goods and the Market for Ideas; in: American Economic Review, Papers & Proceedings, Vol. 64, No.2, pp. 384 - 391

Colander, D. (2005); The Making of an Economist Redux; in: Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 175 – 198

Courvisanos, J., Doughney, J., Millmow, A. (eds.) (2016); Reclaiming Pluralism in Economics, Abingdon(: Routledge)

Eggertsson, T. (1995); On the economics of economics; in: Kyklos, Vol. 48, No.2, pp. 201 – 210

Elsner, W. (2012); Microeconomics of Interactive Economies, Cheltenham (: Edward Elgar)

Fourcade, M. (2009); Economists and Societies. Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain and France, 1890s to 1990s, Princeton (:University Press)

Fourcade, M., Ollion, E., Algan, Y. (2015); The Superiority of Economists; in: Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 29, No.1, S. 89 – 114

Freeman, A., Kirman, A. (2006); Beyond talking the talk: Towards a critical pluralist stance; in: Post-Autistic Economics Review, No. 40, article 4

Freeman, R.B. (1999); It’s better being an Economist (But Don’t Tell Anyone); in: Journal of Economic Perspective, Vol. 3, No.3, pp. 139 – 145

Friedman, M. (1953); The Methodology of Positive Economics; in: ders.; Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago (: University Press), S. 3 – 42

Fullbrook, E. (2008); Pluralist Economics, London (: Zed Books)

Fullbrook, E. (2013); New paradigm economics, in: real-world economics review, issue no. 65, pp. 129 - 131

Fullbrook, E. (2014); New Paradigm Economics versus Old Paradigm Economics; Interview with Edward Fullbrook, Conducted by Paul Rosenberg, in: real- world economics review, issue no. 66, pp. 131 - 143

Garnett, R. F. jr. (2006); Paradigms and pluralism in heterodox economics; in: Review of Political Economy, Vol. 18, No.4, S. 521 - 546

Garnett, R., Olsen, E.K., Starr, M. (eds.) (2010); Economic Pluralism, Abingdon(: Routledge)

Goldman, A.I., Cox, J.C. (1996); Speech, Truth, and the Free Market for Ideas; in: Legal Theory, Vol. 2, pp. 1 - 32

Goodfriend, M. (2007); How the World Achieved Consensus on Monetary Policy; in: The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 21, No.4, pp. 47 - 68

Hacker, J.S. (2008); The Great Risk Shift. The New Economic Insecurities and the Decline of the American Dream, Oxford (: University Press)

Hacker, J.S., Pierson, P. (2010); Winner-Take-All Politics. How Washington Made the Rich Richer – And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, New York (: Schuster & Simon)

Häring, N., Douglas, N. (2012); Economists of the Powerful – Convenient Theories, Distorted Facts, Ample Rewards, London (: Anthem Press)

Haskell, T.L. (1996); Justifying the Rights of Academic Freedom in the Era of ‘Power/Knowledge’; in: Menand, L. (ed.); The Future of Academic Freedom, Chicago (: University Press), pp. 43 - 90

Heise, A. (2014); The Future of Economics in a Lakatos-Bourdieu framework; in: International Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 70 – 93

Heise, A. (2017); Defining Economic Pluralism: Ethical Norm or Scientific Imperative?; in: International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, Vol. 8, No. 1 (forthcoming)

Heise, A., Sander, H., Thieme, S. (2016); Ende der Heterodoxie?, Wiesbaden (:VS Verlag)

Heise, A., Thieme, S. (2016); The short rise and long fall of heterodox economics. Explorations in a scientific field of power and struggle; in: Journal of Economic Issues (forthcoming)

Hochschild, J.L; Facing Up to the American Dream. Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation, Princeton (: University Press)

Hodgson, G. M., Rothman, H. 1999. The editors and authors of economics journals: a case of institutional oligopoly? Economic Journal, vol. 109, no. 2, pp.165–86

Holcombe, R. (2008); Pluralism versus heterodoxy in economics and the social sciences; in: Journal of Philosophical Economics, Vol. 1, No.2, pp. 51 - 72

Kellert, S.H., Longino, H.E., Waters, K.C. (Eds.) (2006); Scientific Pluralism, Minneapolis (: University of Minnesota Press)

Keynes, J.N. (1891); The Scope and Method of Political Economy, London

King, J. E. (2002); A History of Post Keynesian Economics since 1936, Cheltenham (: Edward Elgar)

King, J.E. (2016); Pluralist Economics in my Lifetime; in: Courvisanos/Doughney/Millmow (2016), p. 3 – 14

Lee, F.S. (2007); The Research Assessment Exercise, the state and the dominance of mainstream economics in British universities; in: Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 31, pp. 309 - 331

Lee, F.S. (2009); A History of Heterodox Economics: Challenging the Mainstream in the Twentieth Century, London and New York (: Routledge)

Lee, F.S., Pham, X., Gu, G. (2013): The UK Research Assessment Exercise and the narrowing of UK economics. In: Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 37, No.4, 693-717

Loasby, B. (2003); Closed Models and Open Systems; in: Journal of Economic Methodology, Vol. 10, No.3, S. 285 – 306

Manson, A., McCallum, P., Haiven, L. (2015); Report of the Ad Hoc Investigatory Committee into the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba, Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), Ottawa

Mariyani-Squire, E., Moussa, M. (2015); Fallibilism, Liberalism and Stilwell’s Advocacy for Pluralism in Economics; in: Journal of Australian Political Economy, Vol. 75, S. 194 – 210

Marx, K. (1867); Preface to the first German edition of ‘Capital’, Vol. 1, Moscow (: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961)

Menand, L. (1996); The Limits of Academic Freedom; in: Menand, L. (ed.); The Future of Academic Freedom, Chicago (: University Press), pp. 3 - 20

Middleton, R. (1998); Charlatans or Saviours? Economists and the British Economy from Marshall to Meade, Northampton (:Edward Elgar)

Mirowski, P. (1989): More heat than light. Economics as social physics: Physics as nature’s economics. Cambridge (: University Press).

Mirowski, P. (2004); The effortless economy of science, Durham (: Duke University Press)

Moore, G. (2003); John Neville Keynes’s Solution to the English Methodenstreit; in: Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 25, No.1, S. 5 – 38

Morgan, J. (2015); Is Economics Responding to Critique? What do the UK 2015 QAA Subject Benchmarks Indicate?, in: Review of Political Economy, Vol. 27, No. 4, S. 518-538

Morgan, M.S., Rutherford, M. (eds.) (1998); From Interwar Pluralism to Postwar Neoclassicism, Durham (: Duke University Press)

Robinson, J. (1972); The Second Crisis in Economic Theory; in: American Economic Review, Vol. 62, No.1/2, pp. 1 - 10

Salanti, A., Screpanti, E. (Hrsg.) (1997); Pluralism in Economics. New Perspectives in History and Methodology, Cheltenham (: Edward Elgar)

Schultze, Ch.L. (1996); The CEA: An Inside Voice of Mainstream Economics; in: Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10, pp. 23 – 39

Tirole, J. (2015); Letter to the French Minister of Education Fioraso. (http://assoeconomiepolitique.org/wp-content/uploads/Lettre-de-jean-Tirole.pdf , retreaved 22.02.2016)

Van Bouwel, J. (2004); Explanatory pluralism in economics: Against the mainstream?; in: Philosophical Explorations, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 299 - 315

Veblen, T. (1918); The Higher Learning in America. A Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business Men, New York (:B.W. Huebsch)

Wible, J.R. (1998); The economics of science – methodology and epistemology as if economics really mattered, London (: Routledge)

Williamson, O. (1997); Comments, in: Coats, A.W. (Hrsg.); The Post-1945 In-ternationalization of Economics, Durham (:Duke University Press)