----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 
History of Economics can operate as an event study in which people can see how theory
responds to different conditions.  What is the half life of economic theory today?  Does
anyone believe in hard-line supply side(Laffer) economics today?  It was the rage a couple
of decades ago.  Is rational expectations theory central to macro today?
 
What HET can offer is a way to show people how economic theory updates itself -- in that
sense it is a meta-theory that could be said to be central to what economists might
understand.
 
Were Friedman, Samuelson, Arrow, etc. wasting their time when they read older theory?  I
think not, but at the same time, I suspect that their theory was guided by others who
helped them to see what Walras or Marx were saying?  Today, the production of guides and
the recognition of those earlier landscapes have all but disappeared.
 
Would the discipline be better if we lost a couple economtric techniques and gained a
better understanding of what we, as a discipline, are doing?
 
 
Michael Perelman 
California State University, Chico 
 
------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ 
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]