Description
Book SynopsisThis insightful Modern Guide offers a broad coverage of questions and controversies encountered by contemporary economists. A refreshing approach to philosophy of economics, chapters comprise a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives, from lab and field experiments to macroeconomics and applied policy work, written using a familiar, accessible language for economists.
Highlighting key areas of methodological controversy, the Modern Guide looks at estimating utility functions in choice data, causal modelling, and ethics in randomised control trials. Chapters further explore topical issues, including: economists' attitudes to other disciplines; gender bias in economic research; methods of modelling social influence in economics; behavioural welfare economics; anti-poverty policy controversies; and inflexible reliance on DSGE models in macroeconomics. Furthermore, it explores the implications of the last financial crisis for macroeconomic confidence, and ways to adapt abstract theory to everyday policy advice.
Avoiding philosophical jargon, and with the majority of chapters written by economists, this Modern Guide will challenge economists and scholars of philosophy of economics to engage with different approaches to the topic. This will also be a useful tool for policy makers administering nudges, development initiatives, macro-forecasting and monetary policy.
Trade Review'This collection of essays is a naturalist take on modern attitudes to the theory and practice of economics. The contributors are naturalists in the sense that biologists understand the term--they comment on what is actually going on in the world of economic research, and how it fits into a general scheme of things. They are modern in the sense that they are not turning over the same old ground, but genuinely thinking anew about the future of economics. Anybody interested in the philosophy of economics will find plenty to agree and disagree with in this timely collection.' -- Ken Binmore, University College London, UK
Table of ContentsContents: 1 Introduction: useful philosophy of economics 1 Harold Kincaid and Don Ross 2 Utility measurement: some contemporary concerns 14 Nathaniel T. Wilcox 3 Making progress on causal inference in economics 28 Harold Kincaid 4 Experimental design and Bayesian interpretation 66 Glenn W. Harrison 5 Randomised trials in economics 90 Seán M. Muller 6 Are economists’ self-perceptions as epistemically superior self-defeating? 127 Jack Wright 7 Gender biases in economics 146 Julie A. Nelson 8 On the foundations of behavioural and experimental economics 157 Andreas Ortmann 9 Modelling Homo sociologicus : social influence and interdependent behaviour in economics 182 Michiru Nagatsu 10 Welfare economics in large worlds: welfare and public policies in an uncertain environment 208 Guilhem Lecouteux 11 Poverty measurement and mitigation: a case study of contestation and compromise in South Africa 234 Julian May 12 Core models in macroeconomics 254 Aki Lehtinen 13 The nature of DSGE macroeconomics 284 Alex Rosenberg 14 Theory and evidence as drivers of economists’ opinions regarding the impact of fiscal stimulus 312 Edward E. Leamer and Sumit Shinde 15 Everyday economics 343 Don Ross and Matthew Townshend Index
