IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/122588.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Insider apology for microeconomic theorising?

Author

Listed:
  • Janssen, Maarten
  • Knuuttila, Tarja
  • Morgan, Mary S.

Abstract

This comment on 'Economic theories and their Dueling interpretations' questions the descriptive adequacy of the ‘sociology of economics' proposed by Gilboa, Postlewaite, Samuelson, and Schmeidler (GPSS) (2022). We ask whether economists still perceive the role of microeconomic theory as central as do GPSS. In particular, is present-day economics unified by the principles of maximising, subject to constraints and equilibrium analysis? We argue that this is not the case. GPSS’ appeal to the interpretative flexibility of economic theories appears apologetic, especially the suggestion that theories and models, which once were considered positive descriptions or predictive instruments, are now cast as analytical or methodological exercises. We conclude on a more constructive note, drawing from the recent philosophical discussion of modelling which, quite paradoxically, grants highly idealized and simplified models a more important role than GPSS appear to allow.

Suggested Citation

  • Janssen, Maarten & Knuuttila, Tarja & Morgan, Mary S., 2024. "Insider apology for microeconomic theorising?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122588, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:122588
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/122588/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Petri Ylikoski & N. Emrah Aydinonat, 2014. "Understanding with theoretical models," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 19-36, March.
    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. Jaakko Kuorikoski & Aki Lehtinen, 2018. "Model selection in macroeconomics: DSGE and ad hocness," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 252-264, July.
    2. Grüne-Yanoff, Till & Verreault-Julien, Philippe, 2021. "How-possibly explanations in economics: anything goes?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108622, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Tomasz Ingram & Katarzyna Bratnicka-Mysliwiec, 2021. "Organizational Resilience and Family Firm Performance: The Role of Socioemotional Wealth," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 523-540.
    4. Walter Veit, 2019. "Modeling Morality," Papers 1907.08659, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    interpretation; theories; models; economics; microeconomics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ehl:lserod:122588. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.