I can give you a completely opposite reference :-) Philip Mirowski, in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, nr. 8, 1984, pp. 361-379 has an article "Physics and the marginalist revolution," where he argues that the similarities between the physics of the 1800s and the economics of the 20th century results from economists taking the mathematical models then in vogue and reinterpreting them in economic terms. "Neoclassical economics is bowdlerised nineteenth century physics." The second part of his argument is that this is not reasonable.
The article was fun, whatever one may think of the conclusions. Apparently, this is a major theme of Mirowski. I gather that he's written on this subject elsewhere too. And been strongly criticised by others, of course. Ole At 09:25 11.02.2002 -0800, you wrote: >Dear all, > >I once heard about a paper by a physcist who >juxtaposed the mathematical assumptions in economics >with the mathematical assumptions in physics. >Evidently the author found the assumptions in >economics to be quite reasonable. I've never been >able to locate it. Is anybody familiar with such a >work, or anything similar? > >Curiously, >jsh > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! >http://greetings.yahoo.com
