IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/93328.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Introduction : Malaise dans la science économique ?
[Introduction: Economics and Its Discontents]

Author

Listed:
  • Akhabbar, Amanar

Abstract

This is the introductive chapter to the book "Wassily Leontief and Economics", published in February 2019 (ENS editions). Economists produce their statements and forecasts from devices articulating abstract theories with mathematical models and statistical instruments of measurement. What is the empirical significance of these theories, models and instruments? We consider this question from the reflection of Wassily Leontief, 1973 Nobel Prize winner, on the role of mathematics and statistical analysis in economics. His perspective makes it possible to reconsider why, in economics, "the connection does not go by itself" between the theory and the observation, according to the expression of Alain Desrosières. We reconstruct Leontief’s methodology of economics as an empirical science. From there, we show how the input-output device paves the way to empirical and disaggregated macroeconomics.

Suggested Citation

  • Akhabbar, Amanar, 2019. "Introduction : Malaise dans la science économique ? [Introduction: Economics and Its Discontents]," MPRA Paper 93328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:93328
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/93328/1/MPRA_paper_93328.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elizabeth Waterman Gilboy, 1934. "Time Series and the Derivation of Demand and Supply CurvesA Study of Coffee and Tea, 1850–1930," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 48(4), pages 667-685.
    2. Jan Horst Keppler & Jérôme Lallement, 2006. "The Origins of the U-Shaped Average Cost Curve: Understanding the Complexities of the Modern Theory of the Firm," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 38(4), pages 733-774, Winter.
    3. Erich Pinzón-Fuchs, 2018. "Lawrence R. Klein and the making of large-scale macro-econometric modeling, 1938-1955," Documentos CEDE 16161, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    4. David Cayla, 2018. "L'économie du réel," Post-Print hal-01821936, HAL.
    5. Emiliano Brancaccio & Francesco Saraceno, 2017. "Evolutions and Contradictions in Mainstream Macroeconomics," Post-Print hal-03458622, HAL.
    6. Vasco Carvalho & Xavier Gabaix, 2013. "The Great Diversification and Its Undoing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1697-1727, August.
    7. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    8. Ricardo J. Caballero, 2010. "Macroeconomics after the Crisis: Time to Deal with the Pretense-of-Knowledge Syndrome," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 85-102, Fall.
    9. Lowe, A., 1997. "How is business cycle theory possible at all?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 245-270, June.
    10. Frank Hindriks, 2005. "Unobservability, tractability and the battle of assumptions," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 383-406.
    11. Kirman, Alan, 1989. "The Intrinsic Limits of Modern Economic Theory: The Emperor Has No Clothes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(395), pages 126-139, Supplemen.
    12. Wolff, Edward N, 1985. "Industrial Composition, Interindustry Effects, and the U.S. Productivity Slowdown," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(2), pages 268-277, May.
    13. Roger E. Backhouse & Jeff Biddle, 2000. "The Concept of Applied Economics: A History of Ambiguity and Multiple Meanings," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 32(5), pages 1-24, Supplemen.
    14. Dufour, J.M., 2001. "Logique et tests d'hypotheses: reflexions sur les problemes mal poses en econometrie," Cahiers de recherche 2001-15, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    15. Akhabbar, Amanar, 2007. "Leontief et l'économie comme science empirique: la signification opérationnelle des lois [Leontief and economics as an empirical science: the “operational meaning” of laws]," MPRA Paper 30453, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Dewald, William G & Thursby, Jerry G & Anderson, Richard G, 1986. "Replication in Empirical Economics: The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Project," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 587-603, September.
    17. Baumol, William J & Blackman, Sue Anne Batey & Wolff, Edward N, 1985. "Unbalanced Growth Revisited: Asymptotic Stagnancy and New Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 806-817, September.
    18. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2013. "Six Decades of Top Economics Publishing: Who and How?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 162-172, March.
    19. De Long, J Bradford & Lang, Kevin, 1992. "Are All Economic Hypotheses False?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1257-1272, December.
    20. Dupor, Bill, 1999. "Aggregation and irrelevance in multi-sector models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 391-409, April.
    21. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1975. "An Equilibrium Model of the Business Cycle," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(6), pages 1113-1144, December.
    22. Haavelmo, Trygve, 1997. "Econometrics and the Welfare State," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(6), pages 13-15, December.
    23. Charles I. Jones, 2011. "Intermediate Goods and Weak Links in the Theory of Economic Development," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-28, April.
    24. Marcel Boumans, 2016. "Econometrics," Chapters, in: Gilbert Faccarello & Heinz D. Kurz (ed.), Handbook on the History of Economic Analysis Volume III, chapter 9, pages 106-116, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    25. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1hlgq13piu8cirvmd44v0hs2v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Lars Peter Hansen & James J. Heckman, 1996. "The Empirical Foundations of Calibration," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 87-104, Winter.
    27. Pavel Illich Popov, 2015. "Studying the Balance of the National Economy: An Introduction (A Translation)," Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, in: A Research Annual, volume 32, pages 217-295, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    28. Dietzenbacher,Erik & Lahr,Michael L. (ed.), 2004. "Wassily Leontief and Input-Output Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521832380, October.
    29. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1982. "Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1345-1370, November.
    30. H. S. Houthakker, 1955. "The Pareto Distribution and the Cobb-Douglas Production Function in Activity Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 23(1), pages 27-31.
    31. Antonio Ciccone, 2002. "Input Chains and Industrialization," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(3), pages 565-587.
    32. Sims, Christopher A, 1980. "Macroeconomics and Reality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 1-48, January.
    33. Geoffrey C. Harcourt & Catherine Rouzaud, 1976. "Les controverses Cambridgiennes : Après la tourmente," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 3(1), pages 165-193.
    34. Alain Béraud & Gilbert Faccarello, 2000. "Nouvelle histoire de la pensée économique, tome 3," Post-Print halshs-00201476, HAL.
    35. Emiliano Brancaccio & Francesco Saraceno, 2017. "Evolutions and Contradictions in Mainstream Macroeconomics: The Case of Olivier Blanchard," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 345-359, July.
    36. Ludovic Ragni & André Legris & Roberto Baranzini, 2011. "Léon Walras et l'équilibre économique général: Recherches rescentes," Post-Print halshs-00730354, HAL.
    37. Shoven, John B & Whalley, John, 1984. "Applied General-Equilibrium Models of Taxation and International Trade: An Introduction and Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 1007-1051, September.
    38. John Rust, 2014. "The Limits of Inference with Theory: A Review of Wolpin (2013)," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 820-850, September.
    39. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13724 is not listed on IDEAS
    40. Morgan, Theodore, 1988. "Theory versus Empiricism in Academic Economics: Update and Comparison s," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 159-164, Fall.
    41. Qin Duo,, 1997. "The Formation of Econometrics: A Historical Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292876.
    42. Gilbert Abraham-Frois, 2005. "Sur le caractère inadéquat du « résidu de Solow » et la sous-estimation des progrès de productivité," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 56(3), pages 715-724.
    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. Marchionatti, Roberto & Sella, Lisa, 2015. "Is Neo-Walrasian Macroeconomics a Dead End?," CESMEP Working Papers 201502, University of Turin.
    2. Francesco Sergi, 2020. "The Standard Narrative about DSGE Models in Central Banks’ Technical Reports," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 163-193, March.
    3. Dong, Feng & Wen, Yi, 2019. "Long and Plosser meet Bewley and Lucas," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 70-92.
    4. David Rezza Baqaee & Emmanuel Farhi, 2019. "The Macroeconomic Impact of Microeconomic Shocks: Beyond Hulten's Theorem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1155-1203, July.
    5. Francesco Sergi, 2015. "L'histoire (faussement) naïve des modèles DSGE," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 15066, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    6. Pedro Garcia Duarte & Kevin D. Hoover, 2012. "Observing Shocks," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 226-249, Supplemen.
    7. Francesco Sergi, 2015. "L'histoire (faussement) naïve des modèles DSGE," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01222798, HAL.
    8. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    9. Konstantinos Metaxoglou, 2021. "Canadian Journal of Economics: A historic overview," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 1418-1453, November.
    10. Emiliano Brancaccio & Mauro Gallegati & Raffaele Giammetti, 2022. "Neoclassical influences in agent‐based literature: A systematic review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 350-385, April.
    11. Molnárová, Zuzana & Reiter, Michael, 2022. "Technology, demand, and productivity: What an industry model tells us about business cycles," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    12. Roger Backhouse & Beatrice Cherrier, 2014. "Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970," Discussion Papers 14-11, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    13. Haakon O. Aa. Solheim, 2005. "Evaluating Macroeconometric Modelling with Regard to Usefulness: a Survey," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 31, pages 3-15.
    14. Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Kirsten Ralf, 2020. "How macroeconomists lost control of stabilization policy: towards dark ages," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 938-982, November.
    15. Francis X. Diebold, 1998. "The Past, Present, and Future of Macroeconomic Forecasting," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 175-192, Spring.
    16. Ramey, V.A., 2016. "Macroeconomic Shocks and Their Propagation," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 71-162, Elsevier.
    17. Özer Karagedikli & Troy Matheson & Christie Smith & Shaun P. Vahey, 2010. "RBCs AND DSGEs: THE COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH TO BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY AND EVIDENCE," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 113-136, February.
    18. Johannes Boehm, 2014. "The Impact of Contract Enforcement Costs on Outsourcing and Aggregate Productivity," 2014 Meeting Papers 340, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Saki Bigio & Jennifer La’O, 2020. "Distortions in Production Networks," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 2187-2253.
    20. Stefano Costa & Federico Sallusti & Claudio Vicarelli, 2022. "Trade networks and shock transmission capacity: a new taxonomy of Italian industries," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(1), pages 133-153, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economics; economic methodology; history of economic thought; Leontief; macroeconomics; input-output analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B00 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General - - - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches
    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • B23 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Econometrics; Quantitative and Mathematical Studies

    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:93328. 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.