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McCarthyism and the Mathematization of Economics

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  • E. Roy Weintraub

Abstract

Historians of the social sciences and historians of economics have come to agree that, in the United States, the 1940s transformation of economics from political economy to economic science was associated with economists’ engagements with other disciplines—e.g. mathematics, statistics, operations research, physics, engineering, cybernetics—during and immediately after World War II. More controversially, some historians have also argued that the transformation was accelerated by economists’ desires to be safe, to seek the protective coloration of mathematics and statistics, during the McCarthy period. This paper argues that that particular claim 1) is generally accepted, but 2) is unsupported by good evidence, and 3) what evidence there is suggests that the claim is false.

Suggested Citation

  • E. Roy Weintraub, 2016. "McCarthyism and the Mathematization of Economics," Center for the History of Political Economy Working Paper Series 2016-18, Center for the History of Political Economy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hec:heccee:2016-18
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    File URL: http://hope.econ.duke.edu/node/1252
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    Keywords

    Cold War; McCarthyism; mathematical economics; mathematization of economics; history of philosophy; RAND; Cowles Commission; Paul Lazarsfeld;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • C02 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Mathematical Economics
    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General

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