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Full-Text Articles in Economics
(Wp 2023-03) Economics Imperialism And Economic Imperialism: Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Angela Ambrosino, Mario Cedrini, John B. Davis
(Wp 2023-03) Economics Imperialism And Economic Imperialism: Two Sides Of The Same Coin, Angela Ambrosino, Mario Cedrini, John B. Davis
Economics Working Papers
We argue that in a core-periphery economic world economics imperialism as advanced by the postwar Chicago School and economic imperialism led by the economies of the north are two sides of the same coin. We first review the parallelism between postwar capitalism’s core-periphery expansion of the north into the south and the Chicago’s theory of economics imperialism. We then distinguish four forms of relationships between different disciplines, and using Rodrik’s augmented global capitalism trilemma argue Chicago adopts his Golden Straitjacket pathway, both for north-south capitalist expansion and core mainstream economics’ orientation toward other social science disciplines. The paper then uses …
(Wp 2020-05) Change And Continuity In Economic Methodology And Philosophy Of Economics, John B. Davis
(Wp 2020-05) Change And Continuity In Economic Methodology And Philosophy Of Economics, John B. Davis
Economics Working Papers
This paper provides my reflections on the state of economic methodology and philosophy of economics as of the beginning of 2020 following the end a fifteen year co-editorship of the Journal of Economic Methodology with Wade Hands. It looks at how economic methodology and philosophy of economics, as a meta-field type of research, has changed since it emerged as a distinct subfield in economics in the 1980s. Using an evolution of technology analysis, it distinguishes two different possible scenarios for the field’s future according to environmental factors operating upon it and how specialization in research may affect both it and …
(Wp 2019-03) ‘Openness’ As A Methodological Principle Of Sraffa’S Economic Thinking, John B. Davis
(Wp 2019-03) ‘Openness’ As A Methodological Principle Of Sraffa’S Economic Thinking, John B. Davis
Economics Working Papers
This paper discusses the impact of Sraffa’s thinking on economics. It argues increasing specialization in research is producing an ‘all trees, no forest’ fragmentation of economics that creates opportunities for a return to concerns that motivated classical political economy. It associates this with a methodological conception of what a more pluralistic economics involves, and applies this to relationships between production and distribution. A methodological conception of ‘openness’ is traced to a 1931 turning point in Sraffa’s thinking when he used an open-closed distinction to explain the relationship between production and distribution, and engaged in a philosophy of science reasoning reminiscent …
(Wp 2018-05) Specialization, Fragmentation, And Pluralism In Economics, John B. Davis
(Wp 2018-05) Specialization, Fragmentation, And Pluralism In Economics, John B. Davis
Economics Working Papers
This paper investigates whether specialization in research is causing economics to become an increasingly fragmented and diverse discipline with a continually rising number of niche-based research programs and a declining role for dominant cross-science research programs. It opens by framing the issue in terms of centrifugal and centripetal forces operating on research in economics, and then distinguishes descriptive from normative pluralism. It reviews recent research regarding the JEL code and the economics’ J. B. Clark Award that points towards rising specialization and fragmentation of research in economics. It then reviews five related arguments that might explain increasing specialization and fragmentation …
Review Of Economics Imperialism Versus Multidisciplinarity, John B. Davis
Review Of Economics Imperialism Versus Multidisciplinarity, John B. Davis
Economics Faculty Research and Publications
This paper examines the implications of Chicago School economist Edward Lazear’s 2000 defense of economics imperialism using standard trade theory. It associates that defense with interdisciplinarity or the idea that the sciences are relatively autonomous, but treats this defense as a mask for a more conventional imperialist strategy of promoting Chicago School neoclassicism. Lazear’s argument actually created a dilemma for Chicago regarding how it could espouse interdisciplinarity while operating in a contrary way. I argue that the solution to this dilemma was for neoclassicism to rebuild economics imperialism around neoclassicism as a theory that sees the world in its own …