Description
Book SynopsisAn anthology of works on the philosophy of economics, including classic texts and essays exploring specific branches and schools of economics. Completely revamped, this edition contains new selections, a revised introduction and a bibliography. The volume contains 26 chapters organized into five parts: (I) Classic Discussions, (II) Positivist and Popperian Views, (III) Ideology and Normative Economics, (IV) Branches and Schools of Economics and Their Methodological Problems and (V) New Directions in Economic Methodology. It includes crucial historical contributions by figures such as Mill, Marx, Weber, Robbins, Knight, and Veblen and works by most of the leading contemporary figures writing on economic methodology, including five Nobel Laureates in Economics.
Table of ContentsPart I. Classic Discussions: 1. On the definition and method of political economy John Stuart Mill; 2. Objectivity and understanding in economics Max Weber; 3. The nature and significance of economic science Lionel Robbins; 4. Economics and human action Frank Knight; 5. Philosophical foundations of economics: three texts Karl Marx; 6. The limitations of marginal utility Thorstein Veblen; Part II. Positivist and Popperian Views: 7. The methodology of positive economics Milton Friedman; 8. Testability and approximation Herbert Simon; 9. Why look under the hood? Daniel M. Hausman; 10. Popper and Lakatos in economic methodology D. Wade Hands; Part III. Ideology and Normative Economics: 11. Science and ideology Joseph Schumpeter; 12. Welfare propositions of economics and interpersonal comparisons of utility Nicholas Kaldor; 13. The philosophical foundations of mainstream normative economics Daniel M. Hausman and Michael S. McPherson; 14. Why is cost-benefit analysis so controversial? Robert Frank; 15. Capability and well-being Amartya Sen; Part IV. Branches and Schools of Economics and their Methodological Problems: 16. Econometrics as observation: the Lucas critique and the nature of econometric inference Kevin Hoover; 17. Does macroeconomics need microfoundations? Kevin Hoover; 18. Economics in the laboratory Vernon Smith; 19. Neuroeconomics: using neuroscience to make economic predictions Colin F. Camerer; 20. The market as a creative process James M. Buchanan and Viktor J. Vanberg; 21. What is the essence of institutional economics? Geoffrey Hodgson; Part V. New Directions in Economic Methodology: 22. The rhetoric of this economics Deirdre McCloskey; 23. Realism Uskali Mäki; 24. What has realism got to do with it? Tony Lawson; 25. Feminism and economics Julie Nelson; 26. Credible worlds: the status of theoretical models in economics Robert Sugden.
