Title: Freedom of Research in Economics : A Goal to Strive for?
Abstract: In the following essay, I will investigate whether freedom of
scientific research (FSR) can be justifiably constrained. I will
focus on the issue of FSR in economics. The common
narrative is that the field is dominated by the scientific
paradigm endorsed by orthodox economists, who
marginalize academically those who rely on different
approaches, namely heterodox economists (Romer, 2016;
Roos, 2016).
In this essay, I will refer to orthodox economists as those
representing the dominant school of thought in economics,
which is constituted mainly by neoclassical economists
(Colander et al., 2004; Dequech, 2007). Neoclassical
economists are, in turn, characterised by shared theoretical
and methodological features. The shared theoretical
characteristics that feature in the work of most orthodox
economists are at least the following three. Firstly, orthodox
economists ground their economic models on the
assumption that individuals are rational. I herein identify
individual rationality with expected utility maximisation1.
Secondly, they usually emphasise that the economy will tend
to the equilibrium (at least in the long run). Thirdly, they tend
to neglect the fact that people, in real life, might be affected
by severe uncertainty, i.e. uncertainty that cannot be treated
probabilistically (Dequech, 2007; Walker et al., 2013).
Moreover, those economists usually share an emphasis on
both mathematical formalism (i.e. they base their economic
analysis on mathematical models) and axiomatism (i.e. they
deductively derive their models from a set of axioms) as
rigorous tools of investigation. I propose, however, to
characterise orthodox economists through their shared
theoretical and ideological assumptions (i.e. assumption of
individual rationality, tendency of the economy to reach an
equilibrium in the long run, lack of severe uncertainty),
rather than focusing on their common methodological
framework. The reason for this is that the three ideological
assumptions mentioned above characterise orthodox
economists specifically. In contrast, methodological
assumptions such as mathematical formalism, while shared
by most orthodox economists, are not exclusive to them.
This is in line with the labelling proposed by some prominent economists themselves such as Colander et al. (2004),
Dequech (2007) and Hodgson (1999))2.
Publication Year: 2019
Publication Date: 2019-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
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