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E-book
Author Schlefer, Jonathan, 1949- author.

Title The assumptions economists make / Jonathan Schlefer
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (xv, 356 pages)
Contents The metaphor of the invisible hand -- What do economists do? -- In search of a model -- Economics when society matters -- Chasing a chimera -- Utopia -- This imperfect world -- Entering the realm of production -- What caused income inequality? -- Understanding an uncertain world -- In the long run -- In the short run -- The golden age of capitalism -- Economies in crisis -- Thinking about economies
Summary Economists make confident assertions in op-ed columns and on cable news--so why are their explanations at odds with equally confident assertions from other economists? And why are all economic predictions so rarely borne out? Harnessing his frustration with this contradiction, Schlefer set out to investigate how economists arrive at their opinions
Economists make confident assertions in op-ed columns and on cable news--so why are their explanations often at odds with equally confident assertions from other economists? And why are all economic predictions so rarely borne out? Harnessing his frustration with these contradictions, Jonathan Schlefer set out to investigate how economists arrive at their opinions. While economists cloak their views in the aura of science, what they actually do is make assumptions about the world, use those assumptions to build imaginary economies (known as models), and from those models generate conclusions. Their models can be useful or dangerous, and it is surprisingly difficult to tell which is which. Schlefer arms us with an understanding of rival assumptions and models reaching back to Adam Smith and forward to cutting-edge theorists today. Although abstract, mathematical thinking characterizes economists' work, Schlefer reminds us that economists are unavoidably human. They fall prey to fads and enthusiasms and subscribe to ideologies that shape their assumptions, sometimes in problematic ways. Schlefer takes up current controversies such as income inequality and the financial crisis, for which he holds economists in large part accountable. Although theorists won international acclaim for creating models that demonstrated the inherent instability of markets, ostensibly practical economists ignored those accepted theories and instead relied on their blind faith in the invisible hand of unregulated enterprise. Schlefer explains how the politics of economics allowed them to do so. The Assumptions Economists Make renders the behavior of economists much more comprehensible, if not less irrational
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-330) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Economics.
Economists.
Economics
economics.
economists.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- General.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Reference.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- Comparative.
Economics
Economists
Wirtschaftstheorie
Wirtschaftsmodell
Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Methode
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2011042363
ISBN 9780674068834
0674068831
9780674065529
0674065522