IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/47920.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Capitalism, University and Mathematics as Institutions Shaped Mainstream Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Yefimov, Vladimir

Abstract

The article shows that mainstream economics, which now includes such current as new institutional economics, is the result of an evolution shaped by three institutions (capitalism, university and mathematics) by imposing to the profession of economists their founding beliefs. These beliefs are: ‘laissez-faire’; ‘economic knowledge has a priori and exegetical character’; ‘all mathematical entities exist in reality’; ‘beauty is a criterion for theoretical constructions’; ‘scientific research is a play with axioms and rules of inference’. Because of these beliefs mainstream economics, based on mathematical constructions arbitrarily borrowed from the physics of the nineteenth century, remains cognitively sterile and socially detrimental.

Suggested Citation

  • Yefimov, Vladimir, 2012. "How Capitalism, University and Mathematics as Institutions Shaped Mainstream Economics," MPRA Paper 47920, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Jul 2013.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:47920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/47920/1/MPRA_paper_47920.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heino Heinrich Nau, 2000. "Gustav Schmoller's Historico-Ethical Political Economy : ethics, politics and economics in the younger German Historical School, 1860-1917," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 507-531.
    2. Gilbert Faccarello & Philippe Steiner, 2008. "Political economy and religion in early 19th Century France," Post-Print halshs-00732908, HAL.
    3. Nathalie Sigot, 2005. "La réception de l'œuvre économique de Cournot," Post-Print halshs-00457631, HAL.
    4. Ariel Rubinstein, 2006. "Dilemmas of an Economic Theorist," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 865-883, July.
    5. Hervé Dumez, 1985. "L'économiste, la Science et le Pouvoir. Le cas Walras," Post-Print hal-00262500, HAL.
    6. Geoffrey M. Hodgson & Warren J. Samuels & Marc R. Tool (ed.), 1994. "The Elgar Companion to Institutional and Evolutionary Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, volume 0, number 228.
    7. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2010. "Vers une autre science économique (et donc une autre institution de cette science) [Toward another economic science (and thus toward another institution of this science)]," MPRA Paper 49119, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Karin Knorr Cetina, 1991. "Epistemic Cultures: Forms of Reason in Science," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 105-122, Spring.
    9. Robert Leonard, 1997. "Value, sign, and social structure: the 'game' metaphor and modern social science," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 299-326.
    10. Nathalie Sigot, 2010. "Utility and justice: French liberal economists in the nineteenth century," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 759-792.
    11. McCormick, Ted, 2009. "William Petty: And the Ambitions of Political Arithmetic," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199547890.
    12. Philip Mirowski, 1987. "The Philosophical Bases of Institutionalist Economics," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 1001-1038, September.
    13. Grimmer-Solem, Erik, 2003. "The Rise of Historical Economics and Social Reform in Germany 1864-1894," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199260416.
    14. Nathalie Sigot, 2010. "Utility and Justice: French Liberal Economists in the 19th Century," Post-Print hal-00989866, HAL.
    15. Hervé Dumez, 1985. "L'économiste, la Science et le Pouvoir. Le cas Walras," Post-Print hal-00262501, HAL.
    16. Nathalie Sigot, 2010. "Utility and Justice: French Liberal Economists in the 19th Century," Post-Print hal-00637265, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Vladiir Yefimov, 2015. "Two Disputes Of Methods, Three Constructivisms, And Three Liberalisms. Part I," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(1), pages 29-38.
    3. Yefimov, V. M., 2015. "Two Disputes of Methods Three Constructivisms and Three Liberalisms. Part I," R-Economy, Ural Federal University, Graduate School of Economics and Management, vol. 1(1), pages 24-33.
    4. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2009. "Comparative historical institutional analysis of German, English and American economics," MPRA Paper 48173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2014. "Two disputes of methods, three constructivisms, and three liberalisms," MPRA Paper 56499, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2013. "От Машин Удовольствия К Моральным Сообществам (Размышления Над Новой Книгой Джеффри Ходжсона) [From pleasure machines to moral communities (Reflections on a new book by Geoffrey Hodgson)]," MPRA Paper 49024, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. repec:mje:mjejnl:v:12:y:2017:i:2:p:25-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Philippe Poinsot, 2010. "The foundations of justice in Jules Dupuit's thought," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 793-812.
    9. Poinsot, Philippe, 2018. "Redistribution and indirect effects of transport policy and projects in Jules Dupuit's thought," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 40-45.
    10. Vladimir Yefimov, 2017. "Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 13(2), pages 25-70.
    11. Vladiir Yefimov, 2015. "Two Diputes of Methods, Three Constructivisms, and Three Liberalisms. Part II," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(2), pages 72-85.
    12. Yefimov, V. M., 2015. "Two Diputes of Methods, Three Constructivisms, and Three Liberalisms. Part II," R-Economy, Ural Federal University, Graduate School of Economics and Management, vol. 1(2), pages 226-238.
    13. Hervé Dumez, 2010. "Le Libellio d'Aegis," Post-Print hal-00546720, HAL.
    14. Eduardo Fernández-Huerga & Ana Pardo & Ana Salvador, 2023. "Compatibility and complementarity between institutional and post-Keynesian economics: a literature review with a particular focus on methodology," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(2), pages 413-443, July.
    15. Gräbner, Claudius, 2016. "Agent-based computational models– a formal heuristic for institutionalist pattern modelling?," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 241-261, March.
    16. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2011. "Дискурсивный Анализ В Экономике:Пересмотр Методологии И Истории Экономической Науки. Часть 1. Иная Методология Экономической Науки [Discourse analysis in economics: methodology and history of econo," MPRA Paper 49157, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Duarte N. Leite & Sandra T. Silva & Oscar Afonso, 2014. "Institutions, Economics And The Development Quest," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 491-515, July.
    18. Reynaud Benedicte, 1987. "Règles et l'incomplétude du contrat de travail dans le paradigme standard (les)," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 8742, CEPREMAP.
    19. Christian Picory, 1989. "Orthodoxie libérale et hétérodoxie marginaliste : Clément Colson," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 40(4), pages 679-708.
    20. Gilles Jacoud, 1994. "Stabilité monétaire et régulation étatique dans l'analyse de Léon Walras," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 45(2), pages 257-288.
    21. Philippe Steiner, 2008. "Foucault, Weber and the history of the economic subject," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 503-527.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    institution of economics; founding beliefs of institutions; capitalism as an institutional system; institution of university; institution of mathematics (of the discipline of mathematics);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B1 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925
    • B11 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • B16 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Quantitative and Mathematical
    • B23 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Econometrics; Quantitative and Mathematical Studies
    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

    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:pra:mprapa:47920. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.