Uneconomic Economics and the Crisis of the Model World

What has gone wrong with economics? Economists now routinely devise highly sophisticated abstract models that score top marks for theoretical rigour but are clearly divorced from observable activities in the current economy. This creates an 'uneconomic economics', where models explain relationships in blackboard rather than real-life markets.

Autorentext

Matthew Watson is Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. Since 2013 he is also an ESRC Professorial Fellow working on the project 'Rethinking the Market'. In his research he applies methodologies from the history of thought in order to understand how modern-day markets take their distinctive form.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations 1. Setting the Scene: From a Crisis of Economics to a Crisis of the State Introduction Competing Crisis Narratives of Symptom and Disease The Rehabilitation of Economic Theory The Crisis and the Economics Curriculum Structure of the Boo 2. The Collapse of the Model World: From Faith in Equations to Unsustainable Asset Bubbles Introduction The Growth of Increasingly Complex Secondary Mortgage Markets The Uneconomic Economics of Asset-Price Valuation Techniques Performativity and Counter-Performativity in Financial Markets Conclusion 3. The Creation of the Model World: From Formalist Techniques to the Triumph of Uneconomic Economics Introduction The Return of the Policy Ineffectiveness Proposition The Quest for a Fully Specified General Equilibrium Framework Formalist Technique and the Logic of Market Self-Regulation Conclusion 4. Looking Ahead: From Uneconomic Economics to a Different Future Introduction The Definition of Good Economics The Significance of Historicised Method Final Words References Index ?