| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 253 pages) |
| Contents |
Cover -- Economics Rules: Why Economics Works, When It Fails, and How To Tell The Difference -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Introduction: The Use and Misuse of Economic Ideas -- Chapter 1: What Models Do -- A Variety of Models -- Models as Fables -- Models as Experiments -- Unrealistic Assumptions -- On Math and Models -- Simplicity versus Complexity -- Simplicity, Realism, and Reality -- Chapter 2: The Science of Economic Modeling -- Clarifying Hypotheses -- When Standard Intuition Fails Us -- Scientific Progress, One Model at a Time -- Models and Empirical Methods -- Models, Authority, and Hierarchy -- Wrong versus Not Even Wrong -- Chapter 3: Navigating among Models -- Diagnostics for Growth Strategy -- General Principles of Model Selection -- Verifying Critical Assumptions -- Verifying Mechanisms -- Verifying Direct Implications -- Verifying Incidental Implications -- External Validity, Redux -- Chapter 4: Models and Theories -- The Theory of Value and Its Distribution -- The Theory of Business Cycles and Unemployment -- Theories as Explanation of Specic Events -- Theories Are Really Just Models -- Chapter 5: When Economists Go Wrong -- Errors of Omission: The Financial Crisis -- Errors of Commission: The Washington Consensus -- The Psychology and Sociology of Economics -- Power and Responsibility -- Chapter 6: Economics and Its Critics -- Reconsidering the Usual Criticisms -- The Question of Values -- Lack of Pluralism -- Ambition and Modesty -- Epilogue: The Twenty Commandments -- Ten Commandments for Economists -- Ten Commandments for Noneconomists -- Notes -- Introduction: The Use and Misuse of Economic Ideas -- Chapter 1: What Models Do -- Chapter 2: The Science of Economic Modeling -- Chapter 3: Navigating among Models -- Chapter 4: Models and Theories -- Chapter 5: When Economists Go Wrong |
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Chapter 6: Economics and Its Critics -- Index |
| Summary |
The economics profession has become a favourite punching bag in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Economists are widely reviled and their influence derided by the general public. Yet their services have never been in greater demand. To unravel the paradox, we need to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of economics. Dani Rodrik argues that the multiplicity of theoretical frameworks - what economists call 'models' that exist side by side is economics' great strength. Economists are trained to hold diverse, possibly contradictory models of the world in their minds. This is what allows them, when they do their job right, to comprehend the world, make useful suggestions for improving it, and to advance their stock of knowledge over time. In short, it is what makes economics a 'science' a different kind of science from physics or some other natural sciences, but a science nonetheless. But syncretism is not a comfortable state of mind, and economists often jettison it for misplaced confidence and arrogance, especially when they confront questions of public policy. Economists are prone to fads and fashions, and behave too often as if their discipline is about the search for the model that works always and everywhere, rather than a portfolio of models. Their training lets them down when it comes to navigating among diverse models and figuring out which one applies where. Ideology and political preferences frequently substitute for analysis in choosing among models. So the book offers both a defence and critique of economics. Economists' way of thinking about social phenomena has great advantages. But the flexible, contextual nature of economics is also its Achilles' heel in the hands of clumsy practitioners |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
English |
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Online resource, title from digital title page (viewed on July 23, 2020) |
| Subject |
Economics -- History.
|
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- General.
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Reference.
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Economics
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| LC no. |
2015948055 |
| ISBN |
9780191056680 |
|
0191056685 |
|
9780393246421 |
|
0393246426 |
|
