IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/22921.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Introducing Anthropological Foundations of Economic Behavior, Organization, and Control

Author

Listed:
  • Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich

Abstract

One of the rude awakenings for economists from the current recession is an emerging understanding that economics has gone wild with its highbrow mathematical models that bear little resemblance to reality. The failure of economics to predict and solve the current global recession, has restored the “dismal science” title to the profession. It stems from the cultish fascination with Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand, centered around the belief in the efficient market hypothesis. This fascination exposes analytical holes in the methodology that economics has followed lately, as economics itself has moved too far away from its key social foundations. This situation is incomprehensible and needs redressing. I compiled a book - Selected Readings on the Anthropological Bases of Economic Behavior, Organization, and Control - to help economists and others get back in touch with their genealogy. This current paper is a watered down version of the introduction to Selected Readings. It concludes that real life is neither as simple nor economic as economic theory sometimes suggests. In fact, and for much of human history, non-economic factors and forces have driven economic activities. Selected Readings provides an opportunity for reinforced focus on economics principles. Alone and detached from its social foundations economics has a future only as fiction. As serious non-fiction, economics cannot successfully divorce itself from its elemental foundations in the social sciences. To advance its theory in the past economics needed to borrow from mathematics and physics. Such learning must continue. However, to remain policy-relevant economics cannot wish away the very social bases upon which it is founded. Without social foundations one might as well kiss economics goodbye.

Suggested Citation

  • Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich, 2010. "Introducing Anthropological Foundations of Economic Behavior, Organization, and Control," MPRA Paper 22921, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:22921
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/22921/1/MPRA_paper_22921.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul, 1993. "Idea gaps and object gaps in economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 543-573, December.
    2. Voxi Heinrich Amavilah, 2005. "Resource Intra-Actions And Inter-Actions: Implications For Technological Change And Economic Growth," GE, Growth, Math methods 0508004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Robert J. Shiller, 2003. "From Efficient Markets Theory to Behavioral Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 83-104, Winter.
    4. Paul M. Romer, 2010. "Which Parts of Globalization Matter for Catch-up Growth?," NBER Working Papers 15755, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Herbert A. Simon, 1996. "The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262691914, April.
    6. Burton G. Malkiel, 2005. "Reflections on the Efficient Market Hypothesis: 30 Years Later," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 1-9, February.
    7. Burton G. Malkiel, 2003. "The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 59-82, Winter.
    8. Burton G. Malkiel, 2003. "The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics," Working Papers 111, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    9. Burton G. Malkiel, 2003. "The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics," Working Papers 111, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    10. repec:pri:cepsud:91malkiel is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich, 2016. "The 'Common Goood' in Pope Francis's Social Welfare Hypothesis," MPRA Paper 71760, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich, 2017. "The African origins of Euro-American development: Pins on an empirical roadmap," MPRA Paper 79925, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich, 2018. "Endogenous constraints, coefficients of economic distance, and economic performance of African countries – An exploratory essay," MPRA Paper 90065, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Voxi Heinrich AMAVILAH, 2016. "Social Obstacles to Technology, Technological Change, and the Economic Growth of African Countries: Some Anecdotal Evidence from Economic History," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 320-340, June.

    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. Kin-Boon Tang & Shao-Jye Wong & Shih-Kuei Lin & Szu-Lang Liao, 2020. "Excess volatility and market efficiency in government bond markets: the ASEAN-5 context," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(2), pages 154-165, March.
    2. Ashok Chanabasangouda Patil & Shailesh Rastogi, 2019. "Time-Varying Price–Volume Relationship and Adaptive Market Efficiency: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, June.
    3. Bachar Fakhry & Christian Richter, 2015. "Is the sovereign debt market efficient? Evidence from the US and German sovereign debt markets," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 339-357, September.
    4. John Sabelhaus, 2005. "Alternative Methods for Projecting Equity Returns: Implications for Evaluating Social Security Reform Proposals," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 8(1), pages 43-63, March.
    5. Stephen Bell & John Quiggin, 2006. "Asset Price Instability and Policy Responses: The Legacy of Liberalization," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 629-649, September.
    6. Abootaleb Shirvani & Svetlozar T. Rachev & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2019. "A Rational Finance Explanation of the Stock Predictability Puzzle," Papers 1911.02194, arXiv.org.
    7. Stöckl, Thomas & Huber, Jürgen & Kirchler, Michael & Lindner, Florian, 2015. "Hot hand and gambler's fallacy in teams: Evidence from investment experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 327-339.
    8. Patrick Buckley & Fergal O’Brien, 0. "The effect of malicious manipulations on prediction market accuracy," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-13.
    9. Gaffeo, Edoardo & Molinari, Massimo, 2017. "Taxing financial transactions in fundamentally heterogeneous markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 322-333.
    10. Roland Rothenstein, 2018. "Quantification of market efficiency based on informational-entropy," Papers 1812.02371, arXiv.org.
    11. Qianwei Ying & Tahir Yousaf & Qurat ul Ain & Yasmeen Akhtar & Muhammad Shahid Rasheed, 2019. "Stock Investment and Excess Returns: A Critical Review in the Light of the Efficient Market Hypothesis," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-22, June.
    12. Andrea Antico & Giulio Bottazzi & Daniele Giachini, 2022. "On the evolutionary stability of the sentiment investor," LEM Papers Series 2022/09, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    13. Buckley, Patrick, 2016. "Harnessing the wisdom of crowds: Decision spaces for prediction markets," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 85-94.
    14. Patrick Buckley & Fergal O’Brien, 2017. "The effect of malicious manipulations on prediction market accuracy," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 611-623, June.
    15. repec:idn:journl:v:1:y:2019:i:sp1:p:1-26 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Rocha Filho, Tareísio M. & Rocha, Paulo M.M., 2020. "Evidence of inefficiency of the Brazilian stock market: The IBOVESPA future contracts," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 543(C).
    17. Heraud, Florian & Page, Lionel, 2024. "Does the left-digit bias affect prices in financial markets?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 20-29.
    18. Shu-Heng Chen & Sai-Ping Li, 2011. "Econophysics: Bridges over a Turbulent Current," Papers 1107.5373, arXiv.org.
    19. Maria-Teresa Bosch-Badia & Joan Montllor-Serrats & Maria-Antonia Tarrazon-Rodon, 2018. "Sustainability and Ethics in the Process of Price Determination in Financial Markets: A Conceptual Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-24, May.
    20. James Crotty, 2011. "The Realism of Assumptions Does Matter: Why Keynes-Minsky Theory Must Replace Efficient Market Theory as the Guide to Financial Regulation Policy," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2011-05, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    21. Thomas Holtfort, 2019. "From standard to evolutionary finance: a literature survey," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 207-232, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic behavior; economic organization; economic control; Frank Knight; W. Arthur Lewis; Joan Robinson; Janos Kornai; J. Herskovits; B. Malinowski; anthropological bases;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • Y20 - Miscellaneous Categories - - Introductions and Prefaces - - - Introductions and Prefaces
    • P49 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Other
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

    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:pra:mprapa:22921. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.