The paper starts distinguishing between two kinds of economic practice: theoretical practice (TP) (model and theory building) and direct economic practice (DEP) (the practical operation upon real economies). Most of the epistemological and philosophical considerations have been directed to the …
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Posted for review 4 Sep 2012
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As recent newspaper headlines show the topic of patents/patent laws is still heavily disputed. In this paper I will approach this topic from a theoretical-historical and history of economic thought – perspective. In this regard I will link the patent …
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Posted for review 28 Mar 2012
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Forecasting involves an underlying conceptualization of probability. It is this that gives sense to the notion of precision in number that makes us think of economic forecasting as more than simply complicated guesswork. We think of it as well-founded statement, …
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Posted for review 28 Mar 2012
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In this paper the use of mathematics in economics, and the way in which mathematics contributes, or not, for economics to realise its potential as a science, will be discussed, by comparing two approaches to mathematics, a deductivist (algebraic) approach …
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Posted for review 28 Mar 2012
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The monetary theories in Philip Cantillon’s The Analysis of Trade (1759) differ in important respects from those found in Richard Cantillon’s much more famous Essai sur la nature de Commerce en général (1759). Contrary to the received opinion that the …
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Posted for review 17 Jan 2012
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The widespread and long-lived failings of academic economics are due to an overreliance on largely inappropriate formalistic methods of analysis. This is an assessment I have long maintained. Many heterodox economists, however, appear to hold instead that the central problem …
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Posted for review 17 Jan 2012
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The paper argues that the notion of Pareto efficiency builds on two normative assumptions: the more general consequentialist norm of any efficiency criterion, and the strong no-harm principle of the prohibition of any redistribution during the economic process that hurts …
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Posted for review 13 Jan 2012
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The value of rational choice theory for the social sciences has long been contested. It is argued here that, in the debate over its role, it is necessary to distinguish between claims that people maximise manifest payoffs, and claims that …
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Posted for review 13 Jan 2012
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This paper seeks to analyse the effects on Economics of Research Assessment Systems, such as the Research Assessment Exercise (or RAE) which was carried out in the UK between 1986 and 2008. The paper begins by pointing out that, in …
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Posted for review 13 Jan 2012
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The economic crisis has exposed shortcomings in standard economic theory and provided an impetus for new economic thinking. But the theoretical debate in the wake of the crisis has been unduly constrained by the terms of the mainstream approach to …
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Posted for review 13 Jan 2012
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2 comments