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The Formalist Revolution of the 1950s

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  • Blaug, Mark

Abstract

Something happened to economics in the decade of the 1950s that is little appreciated by most economists and even by professional historians of economic thought. The subject went through an intellectual revolution as profound in its impact as the so-called Keynesian Revolution of pre-war years. I call it the Formalist Revolution after Ward (1972, pp. 40–41), who was the first to recognize the profound intellectual transformation of economics in the years after World War II.

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  • Blaug, Mark, 2003. "The Formalist Revolution of the 1950s," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 145-156, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jhisec:v:25:y:2003:i:02:p:145-156_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Sandye Gloria-Palermo, 2013. "Equilibrium versus Process: A Confrontation between Mainstream and Austrian Ontology," GREDEG Working Papers 2013-39, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    2. Fontana, Magda, 2010. "Can neoclassical economics handle complexity? The fallacy of the oil spot dynamic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 584-596, December.
    3. Brian O’Boyle & Terrence McDonough, 2017. "Bourgeois Ideology and Mathematical Economics – A Reply to Tony Lawson," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 6(1), pages 16-34, March.
    4. Geoffrey M. Hodgson, 2019. "The great crash of 2008 and the reform of economics," Chapters, in: Jonathan Michie (ed.), The Handbook of Globalisation, Third Edition, chapter 28, pages 439-456, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Rossi, Enrico, 2020. "Reconsidering the dual nature of property rights: personal property and capital in the law and economics of property rights," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 105840, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Jonathan Michie (ed.), 2011. "The Handbook of Globalisation, Second Edition," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14082.
    7. Alessandro Innocenti, 2004. "Paradoxes versus formalism in economics. Evidence from the early years of game theory and experimental economics," Department of Economics University of Siena 433, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    8. Adem LEVENT, 2016. "Power, Market and Techno-Structure in John Kenneth Galbraith’s Thought," Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, KSP Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 214-218, June.
    9. Romaniuc, Rustam, 2017. "Intrinsic motivation in economics: A history," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 56-64.
    10. Grüne-Yanoff, Till & Verreault-Julien, Philippe, 2021. "How-possibly explanations in economics: anything goes?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108622, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Marcel Boumans, 2013. "An unrepentant Lakatosian," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 13, pages 177-190, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. David Emanuel Andersson, 2021. "Spontaneous Order and the Hayekian Challenge to Interdisciplinary Social Scientists," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 49(4), pages 363-375, December.
    13. Sandye Gloria-Palermo, 2013. "In Search of the Right Tool: From Formalism to Constructivist Modelling," GREDEG Working Papers 2013-33, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    14. Simone Landini & Mauro Gallegati & J. Barkley Rosser, 2020. "Consistency and incompleteness in general equilibrium theory," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 205-230, January.
    15. Sergios Tzotzes & Dimitris Milonakis, 2021. "Paradigm Change or Assimilation? The Case of Behavioral Economics," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 53(1), pages 173-192, March.
    16. Sandye Gloria-Palermo, 2010. "Introducing Formalism in Economics: The Growth Model of John von Neumann," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 57(2), pages 153-172, June.
    17. Andrea Salanti, 2013. "Between the Scylla of Whig history and the Charybdis of methodological vacuum," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 14, pages 191-207, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Anthony Endres, 2013. "Is the economics of time and ignorance a “classic”?," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 17-25, March.
    19. Sandye Gloria-Palermo, 2010. "Introducing Formalism in Economics : von Neumann's growth model reconsidered," Post-Print halshs-00726348, HAL.
    20. Pühringer, Stephan & Griesser, Markus, 2017. "From the "planning euphoria" to the "bitter economic truth": The transmission of economic ideas into German labour market policies in the 1960s and 2000s," Working Paper Series Ök-30, Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, Institut für Ökonomie.
    21. Sheila Dow, 2009. "History of Thought and Methodology in Pluralist Economics Education," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(2), pages 41-57.
    22. John B. Davis, 2013. "Mark Blaug on the historiography of economics," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 12, pages 159-176, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    23. Koehn, Julia, 2011. "From tools to theories: The emergence of modern financial economics," Wittener Diskussionspapiere zu alten und neuen Fragen der Wirtschaftswissenschaft 16/2011, Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Management and Economics.
    24. Kirtchik, Olessia & Boldyrev, Ivan, 2023. "“Rise and Fall” of the Walrasian Program in Economics: A Social and Intellectual Dynamics of the General Equilibrium Theory," SocArXiv er2va, Center for Open Science.
    25. David A. Spencer, 2013. "Integrating economics with the other human (and related) sciences: some initial considerations," Working papers wpaper01, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.

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