Appraising Economic Theories

Abstract

The methodology of economics has long been dominated by the writings of Karl Popper and Imre Lakatos, two outstanding philosophers of science in the post-war period. This major new book focuses on the application of Lakatosian principles of appraisal to modern economics. An international group of distinguished economists have applied Lakatos’s methodology of scientific research programs to a variety of economic theories, such as game theory, demand theory, consumption analysis, job search theory, equilibrium unemployment theory, the new classical macroeconomics, experimental economics, Austrian economics, Walrasian stability analysis and Sraffian economics. The introduction and afterword by the editors place the papers in the context of the recent rapidly evolving methodological controversy in economics. Taken as a whole, the book makes a powerful statement of the case for assessing rival economic theories with the aid of an explicit philosophy of science.

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