IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v38y2014i3p531-544..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Earw(h)ig: I can’t hear you because your ideas are old

Author

Listed:
  • Peter J. Boettke
  • Christopher J. Coyne
  • Peter T. Leeson

Abstract

This paper provides a critical challenge to the Whig view of economic ideas, which holds that good ideas from the past are embodied in the common scientific wisdom. In contrast to this position, we contend that the market for ideas, while no doubt competitive in terms of scientific rivalry, is not free of distortions in the incentives and signals that guide economic scientists. As a result, ideas that are flawed can come to dominate the profession, while useful ideas are left on the proverbial sidewalk of intellectual affairs. The smooth evolution of economic thought from falsehood to truth that underlies the Whig perspective is complicated by both historical circumstances and the intimate relationship between economics and politics that follows from the attraction of public policy for those who enter the discipline.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter J. Boettke & Christopher J. Coyne & Peter T. Leeson, 2014. "Earw(h)ig: I can’t hear you because your ideas are old," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 38(3), pages 531-544.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:38:y:2014:i:3:p:531-544.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bes075
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Leeson & Christopher Coyne & Peter Boettke, 2006. "Does the market self-correct? Asymmetrical adjustment and the structure of economic error," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 79-90.
    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. A. Maltsev., 2015. "History of Economic Thought, Quo vadis?," VOPROSY ECONOMIKI, N.P. Redaktsiya zhurnala "Voprosy Economiki", vol. 3.
    2. Eduardo Angeli, 2018. "Caminhos da Escola Austríaca: relação com ortodoxia, engajamento e produção de novo conhecimento [Paths of the Austrian School: its relationship with orthodoxy, engagement and production of new knowle," Nova Economia, Economics Department, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), vol. 28(2), pages 681-704, May-Augus.
    3. Slavica Manic, 2016. "Economics Imperialism: SWOT Analysis," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 6(3), pages 151-161, March.
    4. Diana W. Thomas & Michael D. Thomas, 2020. "Behavioral symmetry, rent seeking, and the Republic of Science," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 443-459, June.
    5. Peter Boettke & Alain Marciano, 2015. "The past, present and future of Virginia Political Economy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 53-65, April.

    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. Christopher Coyne & Justin Isaacs & Jeremy Schwartz, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and the taste for discrimination," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 609-627, August.
    2. David Skarbek, 2009. "Alertness, local knowledge, and Johnny Appleseed," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 415-424, December.
    3. Peter J. Boettke & Christopher J. Coyne, 2008. "The Political Economy of the Philanthropic Enterprise," Chapters, in: Gordon E. Shockley & Peter M. Frank & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Non-market Entrepreneurship, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Hausch, Donald B. & Ziemba, W.T. (ed.), 2008. "Handbook of Sports and Lottery Markets," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 1, number 9780444507440.
    5. Christopher Coyne & Justin Isaacs & Jeremy Schwartz & Anthony Carilli, 2007. "Put me in, Coach, I’m ready to play," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(4), pages 237-246, December.
    6. Peter Boettke & Christopher Coyne & Peter Leeson, 2007. "Saving government failure theory from itself: recasting political economy from an Austrian perspective," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 127-143, June.

    More about this item

    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:oup:cambje:v:38:y:2014:i:3:p:531-544.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    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.