----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
[ Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 13:19:57 EST
From: [log in to unmask] ]
I would like to add another perspective to the ongoing interesting debate.
It is true that mainstream economics deals with institutions, history,
dynamic processes, preference evolution and host of other "institutional"
concerns. But the difference between the way they do it and the way old
institutionalism (including their present-day followers) would approach the
same subjects is not merely a matter of individualism vs. culture.
Extremely important is method.
Mainstream economics (a term that doesn't require substantive agreement
over theory and thus may include Stiglitz as well as Lucas; economic
historian and experimentalists might be excluded) build models. they can
deal with whatever problem they wish (from child-bearing to lottery
planning, from development to labor relations) as long as they specify the
actors, their information, their preferences and the rules of the
game. They can even define "culture" in this way and discuss its
significance. This approach may lead to interesting insights, or -- as
others would say -- may yield misleading and/or irrelevant answers.
Whatever we think about mainstream economics, it keeps out many other
research strategies and numerous other exciting findings that would be
published in JEI or outside the discipline (e.g., in sociology, political
science, business and management science journals). Given the allocation
of resource (financial resources, public attention, prestige and political
connections) between MS economics and all other views and approaches, it is
obvious that the impact of MS economics is much greater than that of
others, not because it is better science but due to this allocation.
Yuval Yonay
------------------------------------------------------
Yuval Yonay
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa
(972-4) 824-0016; Fax: (972-4) 824-0819
Home: 6 Shaar Hagai, 34554 Haifa, (972-4) 824-7854
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