That economics is a value-laden science is not a new idea. Most of the prominent economic thinkers were also philosophers, wary of moral and philosophical content of scientific assumptions, models, and theories. That economics needs philosophy, and the separation between these two cannot be maintained any longer, is gaining recognition, and has become a subject… Read More Scientist qua scientist, scientist qua citizen: Part I
In our PhD Economics program at Stanford, we learnt nothing about the history of major economic events of the twentieth century. Instead, we were taught the rather arcane and difficult skill of building models. In order to analyse what would happen in an economy, we learnt that you have to construct an artificial economy, populated… Read More The Education of an Economist
In my paper of this name (which has been published in Real-World Economics Review, issue no. 61, 26 September 2012, pp. 22-39), I show that the apparently objective concept of scarcity is built on THREE normative assumptions. This argument destroys one of the basic ideas strongly argued in most conventional texts, that economics is a… Read More Normative Foundations of Scarcity
Since it was posted in Aug 2013, this post has been almost continuously among the top ten posts on the RWER Blog, and attracts nearly a 1000 hits every month. Revised & updated on 25/12/2017; Previous Version (rev 16/9/2016); Original Post (29/8/2013) Shortlink: bit.do/polanyi Ever since the spectacular failure of modern economic theory became obvious… Read More Summary of the Great Transformation by Polanyi
While there exist many books, journals and forums discussing improved teaching of neoclassical theories, our goal at WEA Pedagogy blog is radically different. Our goal is to change the teaching of economics in ways that will help all human beings on this planet lead richer and fuller lives, and enable them to realize the potential… Read More Three Goals for Pedagogical Change
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