In her review of Warsh, Polly Cleveland wrote:
>
>
> "I confess to skepticism. I find no contradiction in Adam Smith. I
> have difficulty with modern macroeconomics, which disregards factor
> proportions and prices, as well as distribution. I cannot swallow
> growth theory--especially the aggregate production function into which
> Romer incorporates knowledge acquisition. Warsh's heroes battle for
> honor and glory--the admiration of colleagues, publications in top
> journals, prestigious professorships, the Clark Medal, the Nobel
> Prize. And they experience the sheer joy of solving puzzles. But, has
> their new mathematical arsenal enabled them to capture a better
> understanding of the economy, as Warsh assumes?"
There is something rather unseemly, and professionally dishonorable, in
reviewing a book which surveys work which the reviewer abhors, and which
review then concludes that the author of the book is off-base.
If the reviewer wishes to argue with say Romer, by all means let her do
so directly, but archly to dismiss a writer-historian's narrative in
which Romer is one protagonist is too easy a course, and patronizing of
Warsh to boot. I would have been interested in an HES review of Warsh's
book, not this wink-wink assault on its subject matter which
self-importantly appears to be a story of what Cleveland can and cannot
swallow.
E. Roy Weintraub
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