Re: [Pen-l] Behavioral Economics [was: methodological individualism & schools]

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote:
> I took the gist of the article that behavioral economics goes beyond
> individualism, but that it does not "nudge" the community of economists
> (which would be a contradition) to go beyond individualism.

the nature of academia itself encourages individualism, as does the
generally market-oriented nature of U.S. society. (Of course,
businesses try to encourage this result via endowed chairs in
"entrepreneurship" and the like.) I think that the economics
profession will get beyond individualism only if there's big pressure
from outside academia (e.g., from the recession getting even worse,
with mass mobilization for real change resulting), from students (as
with the anti-war movement of the 1960s), or from management
(encouraging unionization by trying to make us into interchangeable
parts, etc.)

The (previous?) Great Depression encouraged the Keynesian revolution.
When "Dr. Win-the-War" took over and post-War prosperity and
McCarthyism set in, the profession mutilated Keynesian economics so
that it could be stuffed into the Procrustean bed of neoclassical
economics.
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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