IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jecmet/v16y2009i2p191-206.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fixing ideas: how research is constrained by mandated formalism

Author

Listed:
  • Arthur Diamond

Abstract

The puzzle: why do so many economists in principle acknowledge the importance of creative destruction, and yet in practice give so little attention to creative destruction in what they teach and what they research? The answer lies, in part, in the difficulty of obtaining what is viewed as 'hard' evidence in support of some of the central claims. For example, one such claim is that new products contribute more to consumer well-being than price competition on old products. The only kind of evidence accepted by much of the profession is the testing of econometric hypotheses generated from formal models. The sort of evidence found in persuasive sources such as DeLong's 'Cornucopia' consists of historical examples and raw time series. I argue that in the short run, a more pluralistic methodology would be better, and that in the long run, we should seek to understand which methods work best under which circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • Arthur Diamond, 2009. "Fixing ideas: how research is constrained by mandated formalism," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 191-206.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jecmet:v:16:y:2009:i:2:p:191-206
    DOI: 10.1080/13501780902940794
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13501780902940794
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13501780902940794?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Nicola Giocoli, 2003. "Modeling Rational Agents," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2585.
    2. Rosenberg, Alexander, 1992. "Economics--Mathematical Politics or Science of Diminishing Returns?," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226727233, September.
    3. Fogel,Robert William, 2004. "The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521004886.
    4. J. Bradford DeLong, 2000. "Cornucopia: The Pace of Economic Growth in the Twentieth Century," NBER Working Papers 7602, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. William Easterly, 2002. "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262550423, December.
    6. David Colander, 2007. "Introduction to The Making of an Economist, Redux," Introductory Chapters, in: The Making of an Economist, Redux, Princeton University Press.
    7. Robert W. Fogel, 2005. "Changes in the Physiology of Aging during the Twentieth Century," NBER Working Papers 11233, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. David Colander & Hugo Nopo Key Words: Latin American economics, global economics, political economy, graduate training, Latin America, applied economics, 2007. "The Making of a Latin American Global Economist," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 0705, Middlebury College, Department of Economics.
    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. Groß Steffen W., 2010. "Warum sich Ökonomen (wieder) mit Philosophie beschäftigen sollten – und Philosophen (wieder) mit Ökonomie / Why Economists should be more interested in Philosophy (again) – and why Philosophers should," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 61(1), pages 75-94, January.
    2. Slavica Manic, 2016. "Economics Imperialism: SWOT Analysis," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 6(3), pages 151-161, March.
    3. Franck Bailly, 2022. "When mainstream economics does human resource management: a critique of personnel economics’ prescriptive ambition," Post-Print hal-03711945, HAL.
    4. Slavica Manic, 2016. "Economics Imperialism: SWOT Analysis," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 6(3), pages 151-161.
    5. Arthur M. Diamond, Jr., 2009. "The Career Consequences of a Mistaken Research Project: The Case of Polywater," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 387-411, April.
    6. Frank Bailly, 2022. "When mainstream economics does human resource management: a critique of personnel economics' prescriptive ambition," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 75(301), pages 103-117.

    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. Arthur M. Diamond, Jr., 2006. "Schumpeter's Creative Destruction: A Review of the Evidence," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 22(Fall 2006), pages 120-146.
    2. Giandomenica Becchio, 2020. "The Two Blades of Occam's Razor in Economics: Logical and Heuristic," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Hendrik P. van Dalen & Kène Henkens, 2012. "What is on a Demographer’s Mind?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 26(16), pages 363-408.
    4. Kerry Hickson, 2014. "The GDP Value of Twentieth-Century Health Improvements in Developed Economies: Initial Estimates for England," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 385-399, June.
    5. Arne Heise, 2014. "The Future of Economics in a Lakatos–Bourdieu Framework," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 70-93, July.
    6. Alex Millmow, 2010. "The Changing Sociology of the Australian Academic Economics Profession," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 29(1), pages 87-95, March.
    7. Groß Steffen W., 2010. "Warum sich Ökonomen (wieder) mit Philosophie beschäftigen sollten – und Philosophen (wieder) mit Ökonomie / Why Economists should be more interested in Philosophy (again) – and why Philosophers should," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 61(1), pages 75-94, January.
    8. 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.
    9. Roger Backhouse & Matthias Klaes, 2009. "Applying economics, using evidence," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 139-144.
    10. Etienne Lepers, 2018. "The Neutrality Illusion: Biased Economics, Biased Training, and Biased Monetary Policy. Testing the Role of Ideology on FOMC Voting Behaviour," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 105-127, January.
    11. Daniel W. Bromley, 2008. "Epistemic Flagpoles: Economics Journals as Instrumental Rhetoric," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 52(2), pages 33-41, October.
    12. Bruce K. Johnson & John J. Perry & Marie Petkus, 2012. "The Status of Econometrics in the Economics Major: A Survey," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 315-324, July.
    13. Sergio M. Focardi & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2010. "The Reasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in Economics," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(1), pages 19-30, May.
    14. The Untold Standards of Living Story: The GDP value of Twentieth Century Health Improvements in Developed Economies, 2012. "Hickson, Kerry," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 105, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    15. J. E. King, 2012. "Post Keynesians and Others," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 305-319, April.
    16. Correa Mautz, Feipe, 2017. "La economía como argumento político: evidencia de estudiantes de economía en Chile," Documentos de Trabajo 4, Estudios Nueva Economía.
    17. Suzuki, Tomo, 2003. "The accounting figuration of business statistics as a foundation for the spread of economic ideas," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 65-95, January.
    18. Zarsky, Lyuba, 2010. "Climate-Resilient Industrial Development Paths: Design Principles and Alternative Models," Working Papers 179080, Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute.
    19. Janet Currie & Tom Vogl, 2013. "Early-Life Health and Adult Circumstance in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, May.
    20. Bahram Sanginabadi, 2017. "Resource Abundance and Life Expectancy," Papers 1801.00369, arXiv.org.

    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:taf:jecmet:v:16:y:2009:i:2:p:191-206. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJEC20 .

    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.