Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a discipline

Economics as a discipline is currently in disarray. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, academic experts, students, commentators, practitioners and politicians all questioned the status of academic economics and many called for a ‘new economic thinking’. Nearly a decade later, however,...

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Main Author: Arne Heise
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Editura ASE Bucuresti 2018-05-01
Series:The Journal of Philosophical Economics
Subjects:
Online Access: https://jpe.ro/pdf.php?id=8006
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author Arne Heise
author_facet Arne Heise
author_sort Arne Heise
collection DOAJ
description Economics as a discipline is currently in disarray. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, academic experts, students, commentators, practitioners and politicians all questioned the status of academic economics and many called for a ‘new economic thinking’. Nearly a decade later, however, there is little evidence of a transformation in research and teaching. The present study first clarifies what is meant by a transformation of economics as a discipline, since this remains an ill-defined term and may be interpreted in very different ways. It then establishes the conditions of a successful transformation of the discipline in terms of intra-disciplinary and extra-disciplinary factors. The paper argues that economics as a discipline cannot be expected to trigger this transformation by itself (i.e. via self-regulation), since the ‘market for economic ideas’ is prone to market failure. In addition, the influence of external factors and actors on the market may serve to distort the congruence between the individual researcher’s utility and societal welfare. External incentives are therefore required to establish constitutional guardrails that ensure fair competition between ideas.
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spelling doaj.art-0d9d9998dbb04b6290e6101d046682df2022-12-22T03:49:36ZdeuEditura ASE BucurestiThe Journal of Philosophical Economics1843-22981844-82082018-05-01XI23766Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a disciplineArne Heise0 The Department of Socioeconomics, Hamburg University Economics as a discipline is currently in disarray. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, academic experts, students, commentators, practitioners and politicians all questioned the status of academic economics and many called for a ‘new economic thinking’. Nearly a decade later, however, there is little evidence of a transformation in research and teaching. The present study first clarifies what is meant by a transformation of economics as a discipline, since this remains an ill-defined term and may be interpreted in very different ways. It then establishes the conditions of a successful transformation of the discipline in terms of intra-disciplinary and extra-disciplinary factors. The paper argues that economics as a discipline cannot be expected to trigger this transformation by itself (i.e. via self-regulation), since the ‘market for economic ideas’ is prone to market failure. In addition, the influence of external factors and actors on the market may serve to distort the congruence between the individual researcher’s utility and societal welfare. External incentives are therefore required to establish constitutional guardrails that ensure fair competition between ideas. https://jpe.ro/pdf.php?id=8006 pluralismtransformationmainstream economicsheterodox economicsregulation
spellingShingle Arne Heise
Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a discipline
The Journal of Philosophical Economics
pluralism
transformation
mainstream economics
heterodox economics
regulation
title Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a discipline
title_full Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a discipline
title_fullStr Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a discipline
title_full_unstemmed Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a discipline
title_short Reclaiming the University: transforming economics as a discipline
title_sort reclaiming the university transforming economics as a discipline
topic pluralism
transformation
mainstream economics
heterodox economics
regulation
url https://jpe.ro/pdf.php?id=8006
work_keys_str_mv AT arneheise reclaimingtheuniversitytransformingeconomicsasadiscipline