The Winter of Our Discontent

Hahn, Florian

doi:10.2307/2552806

Cited by 60 publications

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“…For example, Wassily Leontief (1971) complained about the building of an ever more elaborate theoretical edifice on empirical foundations that could not support 11 it, calling for more attention to the development of new data. The economic theorist, Frank Hahn (1973), complained about elaborating theoretical models that bore no relation to the world in which we live. Economic theory had acquired a prestige that many believed it did not merit.…”

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confidence: 99%

Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970

Backhouse

Cherrier

2014

SSRN Journal

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Abstract:This paper conjectures that economics has changed profoundly since the 1970s and that these changes involve a new understanding of the relationship between theoretical and applied work. Drawing on an analysis of John Bates Clark medal winners, it is suggested that the discipline became more applied, applied work being accorded a higher status in relation to pure theory than was previously the case. Discussing new types of applied work, the changing context of applied work, and new sites for applied work, the paper outlines a research agenda that will test the conjecture that there has been a changed understanding of the nature of applied work and hence of economics itself. JEL Codes: A10, B20, B40, C00

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confidence: 99%

Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970

Backhouse

Cherrier

2014

SSRN Journal

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“…Kornai's intellectual honesty is exemplary; he always reexamines his earlier positions and if he finds them wrong, he explicitly acknowledges them. It needs a lot of theoretical courage and personal integrity to admit that Hahn (1973) was right in his critique of Anti-Equilibrium. No one could describe better than Kornai himself his relationship with mainstream economics: "On some questions I go with the stream, and in other cases I try to swim up the stream.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

János Kornai and general equilibrium theory

Vahabi

2018

Acta Oeconomica

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This paper explores the evolution of Kornai’s thought on general equilibrium theory (GET) and his position on mainstream economics. Three moments in this evolution will be highlighted, starting by his rejection of GET and advocating disequilibrium in Anti-Equilibrium (1971). While Kornai does not treat the “equilibrium paradigm” as irrelevant, he suggests an alternative paradigm, namely economic systems theory that he further develops in the 1980s as “system paradigm”. Economics of Shortage (1980) marks a second phase in which Kornai distinguishes Walrasian equilibrium from normal state or Marshallian equilibrium. In this phase, he supports Marshallian equilibrium rather than disequilibrium. Finally, By Force of Thought (2006) is a critical self-appraisal in which Kornai considers Anti-Equilibrium as a “failure” and acknowledges GET as a benchmark of an ideal competitive market. He now advocates a Walrasian equilibrium as an abstract reference model, but refuses to consider this model as a description of reality. In this sense, he rejects the New Classical economics. Paradoxically, however, his original heterodox concept of “soft budget constraint”, irreconcilable with standard microeconomics, has been integrated into new microeconomics as an optimal intertemporal strategy of a maximizing agent in the absence of credible commitments. It will be argued that Kornai’s so-called failure is rather related to his half-in, half-out mainstream position, while his institutionalist system paradigm is still a heterodox research project of the future.

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“…Kornai (1971) did not pen a critique against the main stream, but withdrew its scientific status. In his reply Hahn (1973) did the same to Kornai, highlighting those epistemological and methodological foundations that can demonstrate the scientific status for the mainstream camp. On these grounds, however, an outsider maintaining different principles cannot be convinced.…”

Section: Conclusion: Arguments For a Methodology Of Economicsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Methodology…?! Why? Some methodological aspects of the controversy between mainstream economics and institutionalism

Galbács¹

2017

EBR

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: Mainstream economics has been running the gauntlet of adverse criticism for decades. These critiques claim as a message of central importance that mainstream economics has lost its relevance for understanding reality. By making a brief comparison between the methodological strategies of the main stream and institutional economics I suggest that the firm demarcation between the streams stems from the difference between their methodologies. Its peculiar interest directed mainstream economics to take a unique methodological path and consequently the adherents have not been able to be on the lookout for certain facets of socio-economic reality. However, the chosen path, the axiomatic-deductive strategy proved to be an appropriate method for identifying economic laws. This claim is justified even by some recent efforts of new institutional economics. In order to support the conversation between the schools I highlight some causes that currently make it impossible to start a rational discourse.

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The Winter of Our Discontent

Cited by 60 publications

References 0 publications

Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970

Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970

János Kornai and general equilibrium theory

Methodology…?! Why? Some methodological aspects of the controversy between mainstream economics and institutionalism

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