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Uneven economic development: identifying the blind spots of mainstream economics

In: A Modern Guide to Uneven Economic Development

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  • Erik S. Reinert

Abstract

This chapter describes 10 important blind spots in neo-classical economics which - one by one and added together - in contrast to what mainstream theory predicts make economic change into an uneven process. In many cases the contrasts to today's assumptions are found in the Renaissance experience-based understanding of economics, as with Giovanni Botero (c. 1544-1617). Language is also discussed, and the limits of mathematics in providing qualitative understanding (German: verstehen) is emphasised. In the opening page of his 1940 Harvard dissertation Paul Samuelson - later the most influential economist of the post WWII era - made an important statement: 'Mathematics is a language.' With this new way of expressing economic knowledge, the best universities in USA changed their foreign language policy to allow mathematics to fulfill one of the foreign language requirements for Ph. D. candidates in economics. The chapter finishes by contrasting differences between Renaissance-type experience-based economics - what we call The Other Canon - and standard mainstream economics on 26 concrete issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik S. Reinert, 2023. "Uneven economic development: identifying the blind spots of mainstream economics," Chapters, in: Erik S. Reinert & Ingrid H. Kvangraven (ed.), A Modern Guide to Uneven Economic Development, chapter 1, pages 19-45, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:18717_1
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    Keywords

    Development Studies; Economics and Finance;

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