Gene Coyle wrote: > Max, > I was thinking of their solid marriage to neo-classical economics -- just > tweaking it with a little behavioral adjustments. The following quote is > what scares me -- what put the kibosh on the Notre Dame econ department, to > all of our loss: > >> Like their intellectual godfather Thaler, the Obama wonks aren't >> particularly interested in tearing down existing paradigms, just adjusting >> and extending them when they become outdated. (Thaler urges his students to >> master the same traditional, mathematical models their colleagues do if they >> want to be taken seriously.)
> It is true that to be "taken seriously" you need to demonstrate that you > won't think much about the theory, but when is CHANGE going to happen? FWIW, it's a fact of academic life that if you don't know the traditional (mathematical) theory, you won't get respect in most economics departments. But experimental methods are getting more respect (e.g., my department, which almost specializes in the stuff). Also, it turns out that a lot mathematical economic theory indicates that traditional neoclassical theories are bogus: for example, there's no reason in neoclassical why any single "free market" reform will improve economic welfare as defined in neoclassical terms. (This is the theory of the second best.) Of course, that is just a tempest in the academic teapot. CHANGE will come when there's a mass movement outside of and inside of academia calling for it. Back in the 1930s, the mass discontent with the economy's state pushed the economics profession to embrace Keynesian economics. (When things settled down, Keynesian economics was effectively neutered.) Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, the anti-war movement spawned URPE and actually forced the mainstream mavens to pay attention for awhile. I wouldn't expect CHANGE to ever come from inside the economics profession. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
