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Ontological wars in economics: the return of supervenience Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2024-02-11 Alexandre Müller Fonseca
In this article, I contest Brian Epstein’s argument (2014) against the applicability of global supervenience to relate micro and macroeconomic properties. Epstein rejects supervenience via a causal...
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Can heterodox economics make a difference? Conversations with key thinkers Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2024-02-11 Danielle Guizzo
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 31, No. 1, 2024)
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To change or not to change. The evolution of forecasting models at the Bank of England Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Aurélien Goutsmedt, Francesco Sergi, Béatrice Cherrier, Juan Acosta, Clément Fontan, François Claveau
Why do policymakers and economists within a policymaking institution choose to throw away a model and to develop an alternative one? Why do they choose to stick to an existing model? This article c...
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Equilibrium modeling in economics: a design-based defense Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Armin W. Schulz
Several authors have recently argued that the excessive focus on equilibrium models in mainstream economic analysis prevents economists from providing accurate representations of the complex and dy...
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Good and bad justifications of analytical modelling Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-11-13 Robert Sugden
Gilboa, Postlewaite, Samuelson and Schmeidler (2022, Economic theories and their dueling interpretations. Journal of Economic Methodology, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2022.2142270; hence...
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Introduction to the INEM 2021 conference special issue Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Malte Dold, C. Tyler DesRoches, Merve Burnazoglu
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 30, No. 4, 2023)
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Social Preferences: An Introduction to Behavioural Economics and Experimental Research Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-11-01 Egor Bronnikov
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Models on trial: antitrust experts face Daubert challenges Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-10-11 Edoardo Peruzzi
Economists are often called upon as expert witnesses by the parties involved in antitrust litigation. One challenge they may face in US federal courts is compliance with the Daubert standard of adm...
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A contribution to scientific studies of norms in economics inspired by JN Keynes and Popper Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-10-09 Sina Badiei
This paper defends JN Keynes’s argument that normative economics can be objective. It begins by exploring Keynes’s view on the positive/normative distinction in economics. After discussing its orig...
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The genetic lottery why DNA matters for social equality Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-10-09 Jonathan M. Kaplan
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Permissible preference purification: on context-dependent choices and decisive welfare judgements in behavioural welfare economics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-09-15 Måns Abrahamson
Behavioural welfare economics has lately been challenged on account of its use of the satisfaction of true preferences as a normative criterion. The critique contests what is taken to be an implici...
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Correction Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-07-31
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 30, No. 3, 2023)
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Medical epistemology meets economics: how (not) to GRADE universal basic income research Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-07-10 Adrian K. Yee, Kenji Hayakawa
ABSTRACT There have recently been novel applications of medical systematic review guidelines to economic policy interventions which contain controversial methodological assumptions that require further scrutiny. A landmark 2017 Cochrane review of unconditional cash transfer (UCT) studies, based on the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE), exemplifies both the possibilities
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Definitions in economics: farewell to essentialism Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-06-21 Cristian Frasser, Gabriel Guzmán
ABSTRACT There is an essentialist view that requires one to specify the set of necessary and sufficient properties of the things that exist when establishing definitions. The endorsement of essentialism for definitions in economics has been largely motivated by the Taxonomic Tower of Babel (TTB), which encompasses two intellectual fears. The fear of scientific aphasia is the fear that scientific progress
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Adam Smith reconsidered: history, liberty, and the foundations of modern politics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-06-20 Erwin Dekker
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 30, No. 4, 2023)
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The soul of economics: editorial Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-06-05 Catherine Herfeld, Chiara Lisciandra, Carlo Martini
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 30, No. 2, 2023)
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The case against formal methods in (Austrian) economics: a partial defense of formalization as translation Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-05-03 Alexander Linsbichler
ABSTRACT Mainstream economics has been accused of excessive mathematization, whereas the rejection of mathematical and other formal methods is often cited as a crucial trait of Austrian economics. Based on a systematic discussion of potential benefits and drawbacks of formalization, this paper corroborates legitimate concerns that predominant types of mathematization induce a shift of attention away
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Is economics credible? A critical appraisal of three examples from microeconomics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-04-29 Seán M. Muller
ABSTRACT Whether economics warrants public trust depends on the extent to which assertions by economists can be deemed credible. Three examples from microeconomics are examined to assess how the discipline performs in this regard. First, a purely theoretical argument with broad conceptual implications: a quasi-evolutionary argument for rational choice based on the notion of money pumps. Second, a modelling-related
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The intrinsic complexity of collective choice a review of making better choices. design, decisions, and democracy Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-04-27 Orlando Gomes
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 30, No. 3, 2023)
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What makes economics special: orientational paradigms Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-03-26 Paul Hoyningen-Huene, Harold Kincaid
ABSTRACT From the mid-1960s until the late 1980s, the well-known general philosophies of science of the time were applied to economics. The result was disappointing: none seemed to fit. This paper argues that this is due to a special feature of economics: it possesses ‘orientational paradigms’ in high number. Orientational paradigms are similar to Kuhn’s paradigms in that they are shared across scientific
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The Homer economicus narrative: from cognitive psychology to individual public policies Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-03-24 Guilhem Lecouteux
ABSTRACT A common narrative among some behavioural economists and policy makers is that experimental psychology highlights that individuals are more like Homer Simpson than the Mr Spock imagined by neoclassical economics, and that this justifies policies aiming to ‘correct’ individual behaviours. This narrative is central to nudging policies and suggests that a better understanding of individual cognition
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Objectivity in economics and the problem of the individual Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-03-01 John B. Davis
This paper addresses objectivity in economics. It criticizes a closed science, ‘view from nowhere’ conception of economics and defends an open science, ‘view from somewhere’ conception of objective...
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A controversy about modeling practices: the case of inequity aversion Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-02-20 Alexandre Truc, Dorian Jullien
ABSTRACT This paper studies the controversy on Fehr and Schmidt's model of inequity aversion. It borrows insights from disciplines such as philosophy and the sociology of science that have specialized in studying scientific controversies. Our goal is to contribute to the historical and methodological literature on behavioral economics, which happens to have neglected behavioral economists' research
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Comments on Nick Huntington–Klein's review ‘Pearl before economists: The Book of Why and empirical economics’ Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-02-17 J. Pearl
ABSTRACT This note aims to assist applied econometricians in understanding the tools of causal inference and to extend those discussed in Nick Huntington-Klein's review of The Book of Why.
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The dawn of everything: a new history of humanity Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-02-01 Michiru Nagatsu
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 30, No. 3, 2023)
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On the epistemic contribution of financial models Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-01-30 Alexander Mebius
ABSTRACT Financial modelling is an essential tool for studying the possibility of financial transactions. This paper argues that financial models are conventional tools widely used in formulating and establishing possibility claims about a prospective investment transaction, from a set of governing possibility assumptions. What is distinctive about financial models is that they articulate how a transaction
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The significance of GDP: a new take on a century-old question Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2023-01-27 Shiri Cohen Kaminitz
ABSTRACT What is the significance of GDP per capita to a society? What does it represent conceptually? These questions have been addressed in past decades, engendering extensive explorations of the limitations of the indicator, yet answers have proved problematic or partial. The paper presents the main conclusions so far drawn and builds upon them to present a new reading of the significance of GDP
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The wealth of humans: core, periphery and frontiers of humanomics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-12-28 Paolo Silvestri, Benoît Walraevens
ABSTRACT Among the various attempts to re-humanize economics, the ‘humanomics’ proposed by Vernon Smith and Bart Wilson stands out. We contribute to the “humanomics project” by mapping its territory – core, periphery and frontiers – with an eye, also, on future explorations. First, we critically study the core: Smith and Wilson’s interpretation and experimental application of Adam Smith’s ideas on
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Scientific communities, recent crisis and change in economics: a Kuhnian perspective Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-11-21 Sergios Tzotzes, Dimitris Milonakis
ABSTRACT Considering Kuhn’s emphasis on the community structure of science, this paper focuses on the scientific community to inquire whether the recent global financial crisis ushered paradigm change in economics. To appraise the nature and the extent of post-crisis change, we examine the methodological constitution of the dominant paradigm identified as New Consensus Macroeconomics, methodological
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Economic theories and their Dueling interpretations Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-11-14 Itzhak Gilboa, Andrew Postlewaite, Larry Samuelson, David Schmeidler
ABSTRACT The interpretation of economic theories varies along several dimensions. First, models can describe reality, illustrate a recommended state of affairs, or analyze the structure and implications of a theory. Second, theories can be used for prediction or for explanation. Third, theories can relate to reality in a rule-based or case-based manner. Fourth, theories can be statements about economic
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Our dynamic being within: Smithian challenges to the new paternalism Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-11-14 Erik W. Matson
ABSTRACT This essay uses concepts from Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments to develop ideas about choice and welfare. I use those ideas to offer several challenges to common approaches to behavioral welfare economics and new paternalist policy making. Drawing on Smith’s dialectical concept of practical reason, which he develops in expositing ideas about self-awareness and self-judgment, I first
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What is useful philosophy of economics? Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-11-04 Caterina Marchionni
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 30, No. 1, 2023)
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Coasean idealization Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-10-11 Daniel C. Russell
ABSTRACT Idealizations help us understand the world by simplifying it. When factors make discrete contributions to an outcome, leaving factors out can make it easier to identify the contributions of factors that remain. But typically in economics, factors are not discrete but interact; how can isolating some factor X from some factor Y help us understand a reality in which X’s contribution depends
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The usefulness of well-being temporalism Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-10-10 Gil Hersch
It is an open question whether well-being ought to primarily be understood as a temporal concept or whether it only makes sense to talk about a person’s well-being over their whole lifetime. In thi...
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Crooked thinking or straight talk? Modernizing Epicurean scientific philosophy Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Francesco Guala
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 31, No. 1, 2024)
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A defense of reasonable pluralism in economics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-08-16 Louis Larue
ABSTRACT This article aims to defend a novel account of pluralism in economics. First, it argues that what justifies pluralism is its epistemological benefits. Second, it acknowledges that pluralism has limits, and defends reasonable pluralism, or the view that we should only accept those theories and methods that can be justified by their communities with reasons that other communities can accept
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Markets, market algorithms, and algorithmic bias Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-08-01 Philippe van Basshuysen
ABSTRACT Where economists previously viewed the market as arising from a ‘spontaneous order’, antithetical to design, they now design markets to achieve specific purposes. This paper reconstructs how this change in what markets are and can do came about and considers some consequences. Two decisive developments in economic theory are identified: first, Hurwicz’s view of institutions as mechanisms,
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Pearl before economists: the book of why and empirical economics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-06-14 Nick Huntington-Klein
ABSTRACT Structural Causal Modeling (SCM) is an approach to causal inference closely associated with Judea Pearl and given an accessible instroduction in [Pearl, J., & Mackenzie, D. (2018). The book of why: The new science of cause and effect. Basic Books]. It is highly popular outside of economics, but has seen relatively little application within it. This paper briefly introduces the main concepts
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Can commitments cause counterpreferential choices? Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-05-31 Michael Messerli, Kevin Reuter
ABSTRACT Commitments are crucial for our lives but there is no consensus on how commitments and preferences relate to each other. In this paper, we present three empirical studies that provide evidence that people sometimes choose a less preferred option when they have made a commitment.
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Rationality: What it is, why it seems scarce, why it matters Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-05-13 Enrico Petracca
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 29, No. 4, 2022)
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Introduction to the INEM 2019 special issue Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-05-04 Luis Mireles-Flores, Magdalena Małecka, Caterina Marchionni
(2022). Introduction to the INEM 2019 special issue. Journal of Economic Methodology: Vol. 29, INEM 2019 Conference Special Issue, pp. 111-112.
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Nash meets Samuelson: the comparative-statics interpretation of Nash equilibrium Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-04-15 Marek Hudik
ABSTRACT This paper suggests that Nash equilibrium can be interpreted as a conceptual tool for addressing comparative-statics issues on an aggregate level. Together with additional assumptions, Nash equilibrium helps generate testable predictions about changes or differences of behavior induced by changes or differences of exogenous variables. However, Nash-equilibrium behavior, as such, is not subject
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What preferences for behavioral welfare economics? Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-04-08 Till Grüne-Yanoff
ABSTRACT Behavioral welfare economics (BWE) assigns different roles to preferences than either non-behavioral forms of welfare economics or theories outside of the domain of welfare economics. In particular, BWE differs from other forms of welfare economics in its attempt to distinguish welfare-relevant from welfare-irrelevant subjective attitudes based on some notion of deliberation error. Based on
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Unifying Theories of institutions: a critique of Pettit’s Virtual Control Theory Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-03-14 Frank Hindriks
ABSTRACT To unify rival theories is to combine their key insights into a single coherent framework. It is often achieved by integrating the theories and forging new connections between their explanatory factors, which leads to an increase in explanatory power. Philip Pettit has proposed an alternative method that serves to establish that their key insights can be coherently combined. Instead of integrating
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Economics is converging with sociology but not with psychology Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-03-11 Don Ross
ABSTRACT The rise of behavioral economics since the 1980s led to richer mutual influence between economic and psychological theory and experimentation. However, as behavioral economics has become increasingly integrated into the main stream in economics, and as psychology has remained damagingly methodologically conservative, this convergence has recently gone into reverse. At the same time, growing
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Introduction: Lucas’s enduring impact on macroeconomic thinking Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-03-09 Peter Galbács
(2022). Introduction: Lucas’s enduring impact on macroeconomic thinking. Journal of Economic Methodology: Vol. 29, The Lucasian Turn in Macroeconomics, pp. 1-3.
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The economics of immense risk, urgent action and radical change: towards new approaches to the economics of climate change Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-02-24 Nicholas Stern, Joseph Stiglitz Charlotte Taylor, Charlotte Taylor
ABSTRACT Designing policy for climate change requires analyses which integrate the interrelationship between the economy and the environment. We argue that, despite their dominance in the economics literature and influence in public discussion and policymaking, the methodology employed by Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) rests on flawed foundations, which become particularly relevant in relation
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Lucas’ expectational equilibrium, price rigidity, and descriptive realism Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-02-24 Mauro Boianovsky
ABSTRACT Robert Lucas' ([1972b] 1981a) article on the neutrality of money represented the first effective challenge to Samuelson’s neoclassical synthesis methodological separation between static microeconomic optimisation and macroeconomic dynamics. Lucas rejected disequilibrium price dynamics, as expressed by the Walrasian tâtonnement and auctioneer mechanisms. Lucas’ new treatment of equilibrium
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Darwinian rational expectations Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-02-07 Kobi Finestone
ABSTRACT The rational expectations hypothesis holds that agents should be modeled as not making systematic forecasting errors and has become a central model-building principle of modern economics. The hypothesis is often justified on the grounds that it coheres with the general methodological principle of economic rationality. In this article, I propose a novel Darwinian market justification for rational
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Review of an advanced introduction to feminist economics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-02-04 Julie A. Nelson
(2022). Review of an advanced introduction to feminist economics. Journal of Economic Methodology: Vol. 29, INEM 2019 Conference Special Issue, pp. 178-180.
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Dispersed information and the non-neutrality of money: fifty years after Lucas, 1972 Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-02-01 Pierrick Clerc, Rodolphe Dos Santos Ferreira
ABSTRACT This paper highlights the renewed interest in Lucas’s explanation of the non-neutrality of money put forward in his 1972 article – explanation based on information dispersion and signal extraction problems – by an increasing part of the literature investigating the transmission mechanism of monetary policy shocks. We review the main contributions to this renewal, and illustrate the relationship
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Transparent players: the use of narrative voices in game theory Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-02-01 William C. Grant
ABSTRACT This paper examines methods for narrating consciousness in game theory. In order to represent how players process their environment, posture towards one another, and hold themselves accountable to their own thinking, I find two distinct ways that game theorists narrate the consciousness of their players. Quoted monologue is a player’s internal language, which can be articulated to show a player’s
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The lasting influence of Robert E. Lucas on Chicago economics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2022-01-31 Harald Uhlig
ABSTRACT This paper is an overview from a personal perspective on the various ways Lucas has shaped today’s economics in general and in terms of ‘Chicago economics’ in particular. In honor of the 50th anniversary of its publication, much focus is given to his 1972 neutrality paper and its impact. I discuss how the paper was a trigger of the subsequent emergence of rational expectations macroeconomics
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Lucas’s methodological divide in inflation theory: a student’s journey Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2021-12-29 Max Gillman
ABSTRACT The paper describes how Robert E. Lucas, Jr.’s monetary economies are based on his methodology of using a single general equilibrium dynamic optimization model with microeconomic foundations that can be tested with econometric methods. It shows how, since his 1972 neutrality paper, Phillips curves continue to be a foundation for policy prescription contrary to Lucas’s 1972 results. In support
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It takes a model to beat a model Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2021-12-27 Hsiang-Ke Chao
Published in Journal of Economic Methodology (Vol. 29, No. 3, 2022)
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A deeper struggle for the soul of economics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2021-12-16 Sheila Dow
ABSTRACT Kevin Hoover explores retroduction as a means of theorizing in macro-economics, rather than exclusive reliance on deductivism or inductivism. Retroduction is discussed as involving conceptualization with respect to empirical evidence as a means of identifying causal mechanisms as the basis for theory in the form of mathematical models. It is put forward as a preferred alternative to more fundamental
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Interdisciplinary influences in behavioral economics: a bibliometric analysis of cross-disciplinary citations Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2021-12-14 Alexandre Truc
ABSTRACT Interdisciplinarity in behavioral economics (BE) has often been described as limited or decreasing since the 1980s. In this article, we investigate the interdisciplinary influences of behavioral economists using quantitative techniques. We find that following an intense period of interdisciplinary exchange among a handful of individuals, interdisciplinarity between economics and psychology
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Introduction to the Review Symposium on Robert Sugden's The Community of Advantage Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2021-12-03 Jack Vromen, N. Emrah Aydinonat
(2021). Introduction to the Review Symposium on Robert Sugden's The Community of Advantage. Journal of Economic Methodology: Vol. 28, The Community of Advantage Symposium, pp. 349-349.
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The limits of opportunity-only: context-dependence and agency in behavioral welfare economics Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2021-10-20 Malte F. Dold, Mario J. Rizzo
ABSTRACT What should be the ‘informational base’ of welfare economics if one takes the insights from behavioral economics seriously? Sugden proposes individuals’ sets of opportunities. This paper discusses his opportunity criterion and argues that it largely neglects intricate problems of context-dependence and personal agency. We contrast Sugden’s approach with Buchanan’s understanding of choice,
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Sugden’s community of advantage Journal of Economic Methodology (IF 1.409) Pub Date : 2021-11-24 Geoffrey Brennan, Hartmut Kliemt
ABSTRACT Starting from a behavioural-economics critique of standard rational choice theory Sugden seeks to restate the case for classical liberalism. That case has three strands: a refutation of libertarian paternalism; a restatement of standard welfare theorems of economics in terms of opportunity sets; and underlining the role that ‘exchange’ plays in supporting civil liberal society. We explore