Julio Huato wrote: > Let me be more specific: *All* the fundamental building blocks of > modern finance are owed to the economists: (1) efficient market theory > (Cowles, Samuelson, Mandelbrot, Fama), (2) portfolio theory (Harry > Markowitz), (3) capital asset pricing theory (Arrow, Debreu, Treynor, > Sharpe, Lintner, Merton), (4) option pricing theory (Black/Scholes), > (5) the theory of informational imperfections (Stiglitz, Akerlof), (6) > agency theory (Jensen, Fama, Stiglitz, Meckling), (7) behavioral > theory (Kahneman, Tversky, Shiller). > > The fist four constitute the framework, the "benchmark." *All* of > them the result of economists using the most conventional economic > approach. The last three add layers of concretion to the abstract > benchmark. Also the product of the economists.
My impression is that Kahneman and (perhaps) Tversky are psychologists, not economists. Mandelbrot, I believe, was a mathematician, not an economist. Debreu, despite being officially affiliated with an economics department, was no economist (but instead a mathematician) because he was not concerned with the real world at all. Unlike, say Arrow who has done some similar work, he was the very model of the modern autistic economist, totally disconnected from the economy and the rest of the world. (It makes actual autism look good, since much of autistic economics is embraced as a matter of choice.) In any event, it's important to avoid lumping all economists, even all mainstream economists, in the same trashcan -- or putting them all on the same pedestal. I distinguish between (1) the public face of economics (what I call the Ekon, currently the neoliberal neoclassicals at the IMF, etc.) and (2) the more sophisticated people (such as Akerlof) who reject the BS in mainstream economics, bringing in knowledge from non-economic scholars rather than sneering at them and bragging about economics as the "queen of the social science" etc. and (3) the Bourbakists like Debreu, totally obsessed with form over content. -- 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
