Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics

The paper tries to explain the extraordinary expansion in the 20th century of the English-born neoclassical economics and at the same time the decline of the German historical tradition. Methodology used in this paper is evolutionary institutionalist, which can be called, following American poli...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Vladimir Yefimov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: NGO “Economic Laboratory for Transition Research” (ELIT) 2017-06-01
Series:Montenegrin Journal of Economics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://mnje.com/sites/mnje.com/files/25-70-_yefimov.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849414965885140992
author Vladimir Yefimov
author_facet Vladimir Yefimov
author_sort Vladimir Yefimov
collection DOAJ
description The paper tries to explain the extraordinary expansion in the 20th century of the English-born neoclassical economics and at the same time the decline of the German historical tradition. Methodology used in this paper is evolutionary institutionalist, which can be called, following American political scientists, Historical Institutionalism. The link between science and university was created first in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century with the reform of Wilhelm Humboldt. At the end of the 19th century when the institutionalization of economics took place, curriculum of English and most of the American universities were dominated by classics and theology. This was the determinant factor of institutionalization of economics as abstract science with its a priori method. On the contrary, German economics was institutionalized in new research universities in which experimental approach was highly valued. The continuation and very successful development in the United States of the scientific economic tradition born in Germany in the form of the Wisconsin Institutionalism was due to the economic support of its research by the big business interested at that time to find solutions to the “labour problem”. The paper also contains the description of institutional mechanism of stability and expansion of neoclassical economics. For a century and a half, economics claims to be a science having as model natural sciences. It used in this claim a modernisttype of discourse. Bruno Latour and other specialists of Science Studies have shown that this type of discourse never corresponded to the realities of scientific research: “We have never been modern”. The paper shows what kind of lessons the economists should learn from science studies.
format Article
id doaj-art-6c4fcb82adcd4bc88d65b475630aa525
institution Kabale University
issn 1800-5845
1800-6698
language English
publishDate 2017-06-01
publisher NGO “Economic Laboratory for Transition Research” (ELIT)
record_format Article
series Montenegrin Journal of Economics
spelling doaj-art-6c4fcb82adcd4bc88d65b475630aa5252025-08-20T03:33:39ZengNGO “Economic Laboratory for Transition Research” (ELIT)Montenegrin Journal of Economics1800-58451800-66982017-06-011322570Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American EconomicsVladimir Yefimov0University of Geneva, Central Economic and Mathematical Institute, Russian Academy of SciencesThe paper tries to explain the extraordinary expansion in the 20th century of the English-born neoclassical economics and at the same time the decline of the German historical tradition. Methodology used in this paper is evolutionary institutionalist, which can be called, following American political scientists, Historical Institutionalism. The link between science and university was created first in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century with the reform of Wilhelm Humboldt. At the end of the 19th century when the institutionalization of economics took place, curriculum of English and most of the American universities were dominated by classics and theology. This was the determinant factor of institutionalization of economics as abstract science with its a priori method. On the contrary, German economics was institutionalized in new research universities in which experimental approach was highly valued. The continuation and very successful development in the United States of the scientific economic tradition born in Germany in the form of the Wisconsin Institutionalism was due to the economic support of its research by the big business interested at that time to find solutions to the “labour problem”. The paper also contains the description of institutional mechanism of stability and expansion of neoclassical economics. For a century and a half, economics claims to be a science having as model natural sciences. It used in this claim a modernisttype of discourse. Bruno Latour and other specialists of Science Studies have shown that this type of discourse never corresponded to the realities of scientific research: “We have never been modern”. The paper shows what kind of lessons the economists should learn from science studies.http://mnje.com/sites/mnje.com/files/25-70-_yefimov.pdfinstitution of economicsGerman and English approaches to economicsinstitutional mechanism of stability and expansion of neoclassical economicsconstructivist model of scientific researchinterpretive/pragmatist paradigm.
spellingShingle Vladimir Yefimov
Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics
Montenegrin Journal of Economics
institution of economics
German and English approaches to economics
institutional mechanism of stability and expansion of neoclassical economics
constructivist model of scientific research
interpretive/pragmatist paradigm.
title Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics
title_full Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics
title_fullStr Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics
title_full_unstemmed Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics
title_short Comparative Historical Institutional Analysis of German, English and American Economics
title_sort comparative historical institutional analysis of german english and american economics
topic institution of economics
German and English approaches to economics
institutional mechanism of stability and expansion of neoclassical economics
constructivist model of scientific research
interpretive/pragmatist paradigm.
url http://mnje.com/sites/mnje.com/files/25-70-_yefimov.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT vladimiryefimov comparativehistoricalinstitutionalanalysisofgermanenglishandamericaneconomics