IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/midasp/11691.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Against Mechanism: Methodology For An Evolutionary Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Schmid, A. Allan
  • Thompson, Paul B.

Abstract

When the first economics departments were proposed at Cambridge and Oxford, the proponents thought acceptance would be improved if economics could be seen as incorporating the methods of physics. The enterprise was premised on the existence of economic laws that describe invariant relationships between events. These event regularities, like gravity, were not affected by human action. Humans could adapt and use them, but not change them. Thus the metaphor of "mechanism" seemed appropriate and became embedded in economists' language. It is common to use the term market mechanism to link prices and commodities. This suggests the economy is like turning a crank attached to a set of gears where there is a fixed relationship between the crank's motion and the last gear's motion. The gears have no ideas of their own, they don't get mad; there is no cognitive element between events and action.

Suggested Citation

  • Schmid, A. Allan & Thompson, Paul B., 1999. "Against Mechanism: Methodology For An Evolutionary Economics," Staff Paper Series 11691, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:midasp:11691
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.11691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/11691/files/sp99-39.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.11691?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1986. "Rationality of Self and Others in an Economic System," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 385-399, October.
    2. Stephen Knack & Philip Keefer, 1997. "Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1251-1288.
    3. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1987. "The Causes and Consequences of the Dependence of Quality on Price," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-48, March.
    4. Hausman, Daniel M., 1998. "Problems with Realism in Economics," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 185-213, October.
    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. Gradstein, Mark, 2002. "Rules, stability, and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 471-484, April.
    2. Zhao, Eric Yanfei & Lounsbury, Michael, 2016. "An institutional logics approach to social entrepreneurship: Market logic, religious diversity, and resource acquisition by microfinance organizations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 643-662.
    3. Diego Caramuta, 2005. "A Dynamic Approach to the Relationship between Inequality, Social Capital and Institutions," Development and Comp Systems 0506009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Gustavsson, Magnus & Jordahl, Henrik, 2008. "Inequality and trust in Sweden: Some inequalities are more harmful than others," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 348-365, February.
    5. Landabaso, Mikel & Mouton, Bénédicte, 2005. "Towards a different regional innovation policy : eight years of European experience through the European Regional Development Fund innovative actions," MPRA Paper 115020, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Bramoulle, Y. & Goyal, S. & Morelli, M., 2024. "Social Structure, State, and Economic Activity," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2416, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    7. Jackson Emerson Abraham, 2017. "Theoretical and Methodological Context of (Post)-Modern Econometrics and Competing Philosophical Discourses for Policy Prescription," Journal of Heterodox Economics, Sciendo, vol. 4(2), pages 119-129, December.
    8. Valerija Botrić, 2013. "Determinants of Intra-industry Trade between Western Balkans and EU-15: Evidence from Bilateral Data," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 6(2), pages 7-23, September.
    9. Kim, Seong Hee & Kim, Byung-Yeon, 2020. "Migration and trust: Evidence from West Germany after unification," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 425-441.
    10. Molem Christopher Sama & Elizabeth Ankiambom Chiatii & Nkwetta Ajong Aquilas & Ofeh Moses Abit, 2016. "Building social capital in the fishery communities of the South-West region of Cameroon: The case of Limbe municipality," Asian Journal of Agriculture and rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 6(7), pages 119-130, July.
    11. Schmid, A. Allan, 2004. "Economic Analysis And Efficiency In Public Expenditure," Staff Paper Series 11776, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    12. Eiji Yamamura, 2011. "How Do Neighbors Influence Investment in Social Capital? Homeownership and Length of Residence," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 17(4), pages 451-464, November.
    13. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Lee, Sang Mook & Shim, Hyeongsop, 2022. "Does social capital influence executive risk-taking incentives?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    14. Shagata Mukherjee, 2020. "What Drives Gender Differences in Trust and Trustworthiness?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(6), pages 778-805, November.
    15. Bamieh, Omar & Cintolesi, Andrea, 2021. "Intergenerational transmission in regulated professions and the role of familism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 857-879.
    16. Torgler, Benno & Schneider, Friedrich & Schaltegger, Christoph A., 2007. "With or Against the People? The Impact of a Bottom-Up Approach on Tax Morale and the Shadow Economy," Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series qt6331x6vz, Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics.
    17. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    18. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2014. "Social Capital and Performance of Fiscal Institution in India during 1991-2012," MPRA Paper 75827, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 26 Jun 2015.
    19. Paunov, Caroline, 2016. "Corruption's asymmetric impacts on firm innovation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 216-231.
    20. Heineck, Guido & Süssmuth, Bernd, 2013. "A different look at Lenin’s legacy: Social capital and risk taking in the Two Germanies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 789-803.

    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:ags:midasp:11691. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/damsuus.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.