How Economics develops over time: Kuhn versus Laudan

Chapter 5 compares Kuhn’s model of scientific revolutions and Laudan’s more incremental model where important elements can be replaced, but where the rest of a research tradition is kept intact. The changes in Economics, as described in the Nobel Prize Committee motivations for awarding the prize, are hard to fit into Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, where there is a radical shift in assumptions/theories and methods during a rather short period of time. It is better to see Economics at a certain point in time as consisting of a number of components that can be changed one by one without changing the rest of the structure. New methods, such as laboratory and field experiments, can be added without replacing earlier methods. Certain assumptions in traditional theories/models can be replaced without changing established methods. New perspectives can also be added, for example transaction cost and asymmetric information, while the general research strategy is the same.