On the Methodology of Economics and the Formalist Revolution

ISBN-13: 9781840640403 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 392 str.

T.W. Hutchison

Opis

This collection of essay examines the methodological problems confronting economists in the face of two major developments in the second half of the 20th century. The first is the vast increase in the number and variety of writings on the methodology or philosophy of economics, especially from those intensively specializing in methodology. This has led to the virtual breakdown in communication between methodologists and mainstream economists, with methodology becoming increasingly isolated from mainstream economics. The second major development has been what Benjamin Ward first called the formalist revolution which he, not unjustifiably, described as more important than the Keynesian revolution. Professor Hutchison attempts to contribute to serious methodological analysis of this revolution and, at the same time, suggests how communication between mainstream economists and methodologists might be improved.