IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/14-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970

Author

Listed:
  • Roger Backhouse
  • Beatrice Cherrier

Abstract

This paper conjectures that economics has changed profoundly since the 1970s and that these changes involve a new understanding of the relationship between theoretical and applied work. Drawing on an analysis of John Bates Clark medal winners, it is suggested that the discipline became more applied, applied work being accorded a higher status in relation to pure theory than was previously the case. Discussing new types of applied work, the changing context of applied work, and new sites for applied work, the paper outlines a research agenda that will test the conjecture that there has been a changed understanding of the nature of applied work and hence of economics itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger Backhouse & Beatrice Cherrier, 2014. "Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970," Discussion Papers 14-11, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    • Handle: RePEc:bir:birmec:14-11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.cal.bham.ac.uk/pdf/14-11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. H. Spencer Banzhaf, 2009. "Objective or Multi-Objective? Two Historically Competing Visions for Benefit-Cost Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(1), pages 3-23.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    3. Evelyn L. Forget, 2004. "Contested Histories of an Applied Field: The Case of Health Economics," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 617-637, Winter.
    4. Dewald, William G & Thursby, Jerry G & Anderson, Richard G, 1986. "Replication in Empirical Economics: The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Project," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 587-603, September.
    5. Roger E. Backhouse & Steven G. Medema, 2009. "Retrospectives: On the Definition of Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 221-233, Winter.
    6. Backhouse,Roger E., 2010. "The Puzzle of Modern Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521825542.
    7. Roger E. Backhouse & Jeff Biddle, 2000. "The Concept of Applied Economics: A History of Ambiguity and Multiple Meanings," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 32(5), pages 1-24, Supplemen.
    8. Beatrice Cherrier, 2017. "Classifying Economics: A History of the JEL Codes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(2), pages 545-579, June.
    9. Michele Alacevich, 2009. "The Political Economy of the World Bank : The Early Years," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13807, December.
    10. Stapleford,Thomas A., 2009. "The Cost of Living in America," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521895019.
    11. Rutherford,Malcolm, 2013. "The Institutionalist Movement in American Economics, 1918–1947," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107626089, January.
    12. Friedman, Milton, 2008. "Milton Friedman on Economics," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226263496, September.
    13. Stapleford,Thomas A., 2009. "The Cost of Living in America," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521719247.
    14. Philippe Mongin, 1992. "The “Full-Cost” Controversy of the 1940s and 1950s: A Methodological Assessment," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 311-356, Summer.
    15. Leontief, Wassily, 1971. "Theoretical Assumptions and Nonobserved Facts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 1-7, March.
    16. Backhouse,Roger E., 2010. "The Puzzle of Modern Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521532617.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cedrini, Mario & Fontana, Magda, 2015. "Mainstreaming. Reflections on the Origins and Fate of Mainstream Pluralism," CESMEP Working Papers 201501, University of Turin.
    2. Bäuerle, Lukas, 2017. "Die ökonomische Lehrbuchwissenschaft: Zum interdisziplinären Selbstverständnis der Volkswirtschaftslehre," Working Paper Series Ök-35, Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, Institut für Ökonomie.
    3. Mario Cedrini & Magda Fontana, 2018. "Just another niche in the wall? How specialization is changing the face of mainstream economics [Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and the sciences]," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(2), pages 427-451.
    4. Joshua Angrist & Pierre Azoulay & Glenn Ellison & Ryan Hill & Susan Feng Lu, 2017. "Inside Job or Deep Impact? Using Extramural Citations to Assess Economic Scholarship," NBER Working Papers 23698, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jeff E. Biddle & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2016. "Theory and Measurement: Emergence, Consolidation and Erosion of a Consensus," NBER Working Papers 22253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Michel De Vroey & Luca Pensieroso, 2021. "Grounded in Methodology, Certified by Journals: The Rise and Evolution of a Mainstream in Economics," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2021015, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    7. Kirtchik, Olessia & Boldyrev, Ivan, 2024. "“Rise And Fall” Of The Walrasian Program In Economics: A Social And Intellectual Dynamics Of The General Equilibrium Theory," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 1-26, March.
    8. Reinke, Rouven, 2020. "Das Wissenschaftsverständnis der Volkswirtschaftslehre in der Kritik: Implikationen für die Vision einer pluralen Ökonomik," ZÖSS-Discussion Papers 79, University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2013. "Philosophie et science économiques : leur contribution respective aux discours politiques [Economic philosophy and economic science: their respective contributions to political discourse]," MPRA Paper 54598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont, 2012. "The rhetoric of failure: a hyper-dialog about method in economics and how to get things going," MPRA Paper 43276, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Akhabbar, Amanar, 2019. "Introduction : Malaise dans la science économique ? [Introduction: Economics and Its Discontents]," MPRA Paper 93328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Karl Beyer & Stephan Puehringer, 2019. "Divided we stand? Professional consensus and political conflict in academic economics," ICAE Working Papers 94, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    5. Su, Huei-Chun & Colander, David, 2021. "The Economist As Scientist, Engineer, Or Plumber?," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 297-312, June.
    6. Mueller-Langer, Frank & Andreoli-Versbach, Patrick, 2018. "Open access to research data: Strategic delay and the ambiguous welfare effects of mandatory data disclosure," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 20-34.
    7. Jun, Bogang & Kim, Tai-Yoo, 2015. "A neo-Schumpeterian perspective on the analytical macroeconomic framework: The expanded reproduction system," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 11-2015, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    8. Mark J. McCabe & Frank Mueller-Langer, 2019. "Does Data Disclosure Increase Citations? Empirical Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Leading Economics Journals," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2019-02, Joint Research Centre.
    9. Fix, Blair, 2020. "Economic Development and the Death of the Free Market," SocArXiv g86am, Center for Open Science.
    10. Douglas Almond & Janet Currie & Valentina Duque, 2018. "Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act II," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1360-1446, December.
    11. Banzhaf, H. Spencer, 2016. "Constructing markets: environmental economics and the contingent valuation controversy," MPRA Paper 78814, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Roger E. Backhouse & Steve G. Medema, 2009. "Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(s1), pages 805-820, October.
    13. repec:abd:kauiea:v:26:y:2013:i:1:p:169-202 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Javdani, Moshen & Chang, Ha-Joon, 2019. "Who Said or What Said? Estimating Ideological Bias in Views Among Economists," MPRA Paper 91958, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Jimena Hurtado, 2014. "Albert O. Hirschman y la economía del desarrollo: lecciones para el presente," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, June.
    16. Volker Nienhaus, 2013. "Method and Substance of Islamic Economics: Moving Where? منهج وموضوع الاقتصاد الإسلامي إلى أين المسير؟," Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics, King Abdulaziz University, Islamic Economics Institute., vol. 26(1), pages 169-202, January.
    17. Josh Angrist & Pierre Azoulay & Glenn Ellison & Ryan Hill & Susan Feng Lu, 2020. "Inside Job or Deep Impact? Extramural Citations and the Influence of Economic Scholarship," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 3-52, March.
    18. Sharleen Forbes & Corin Higgs & James Keating & Evan Roberts, 2012. "Prescriptivism to positivism? The development of the CPI in New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 57-77, November.
    19. Alexandre Chirat, 2021. "When Berle and Galbraith brought political economy back to life : Study of a cross-fertilization (1933-1967)," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-27, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    20. Charles G. Renfro, 2009. "The Practice of Econometric Theory," Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics, Springer, number 978-3-540-75571-5, July-Dece.
    21. Yefimov, Vladumir, 2011. "Дискурсивный Анализ В Экономике: Пересмотр Методологии И Истории Экономической Науки. Часть 2 - Иная История И Современность [Discourse analysis in economics: methodology and history of economics r," MPRA Paper 49069, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Applied economics; theory; Clark Medal; JEL codes; core; policy; computation; data; econometrics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General
    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General
    • C00 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bir:birmec:14-11. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oleksandr Talavera (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/debhauk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.