A Guide to What’s Wrong with Economics

 

edited by Edward Fullbrook.
contributors: Emmanuelle Bénicourt, Michael A. Bernstein, Ana Maria Binachi, Ha-Joon
Chang, Robert Costanza, Herman E. Daly, James G. Devine, Peter Earl, Susan Feiner, Edward Fullbrook, Jean Gadrey, Donald Gillies, Bernard Guerrien, Ozgur Gun, Joseph Halevi, Geoffrey Hodgson, Grazia Ietto-Gillies, Steve Keen, Tony Lawson, Anne Mayhew, Paul Ormerod, Renato Di Ruzza, Sashi Sivramkrishna, Peter Söderbaum, Hugh Stretton, Charles L Wilber, Richard Wolff, Stephen T. Ziliak.


London: Anthem Press, November 2004, paperback, 323 pages.

available at: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.co.jp, amazon.ca,  barnes&noble.com

 

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Contents


Introduction: Broadband versus narrowband economics

Edward Fullbrook   University of the West of England, UK

 

 

Part I

Basic Problems

 

The quarrelsome boundaries of economics

Hugh Stretton    University of Adelaide, Australia

 

Modern economics: the problem and a solution

Tony Lawson    Cambridge University, UK

 

The pitfalls of mainstream economic reasoning (and teaching)

Michael A. Bernstein    University of California, San Diego, USA

 

Neoclassical economic theory: a special and not a general case

Paul Ormerod    Volterra Consulting, UK

 

Where do economies come from?  The missing story
Anne Mayhew   
University of Tennessee, USA

 

Can economics start from the individual alone?

Geoffrey M. Hodgson     University of Hertfordshire, UK

 

 

Part II

Micro Nonsense

 

Are you rational?

Edward Fullbrook   University of the West of England, UK

 

Five pieces of advice for students studying microeconomics

Emmanuelle Benicourt   École des Hautes Études des Siences Sociales, France

 

How mainstream economists model choice, versus how we behave, and why it matters

Peter E. Earl    University of Queensland, Australia

 

Managerial economics:  economics of management or economics for managers?

Sashi Sivramkrishna    Foundation to Aid Industrial Recovery, India

 

 

Part III

Macro Nonsense

 

Why do we have separate courses in “micro” and “macro” economics ?

Ozgur Gun    Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne, France

 

The “natural” rate of unemployment

James G. Devine    Loyola Marymount University, USA

 

How to look at economics critically: some suggestions

Renato Di Ruzza    Université de Aix-Marseille, France

Joseph Halevi    University of Sydney,  Australia and Université Pierre Mendès France, France

 

 

Part IV

Ethical Voids and Social Pathologies

 

Teaching economics as if ethics mattered

Charles K. Wilber    University of Notre Dame, USA

 

Economics as ideology and the need for pluralism

Peter Söderbaum    Mälardalen University, Sweden

 

The “efficiency” illusion

Richard Wolff    University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

 

“There are none so blind . . .

Susan F. Feiner    University of Southern Maine, USA

 

 

Part V

Misuse of Mathematics and Statistics

 

Can mathematics be used successfully in economics?

Donald Gillies    King’s College London, UK

 

Is there something to expect from game theory?

Bernard Guerrien    Université Paris I, France

 

Improbable, Incorrect or Impossible: The persuasive but flawed mathematics of microeconomics

Steve Keen    University of Western Sydney, Australia

 

The significance of the economics research paper

Stephen T. Ziliak    Roosevelt University, USA

 

 

Part VI

Category Mistakes Regarding Wealth and Illth

 

Changing visions of humans’ place in the world and the need for an Ecological Economics

Robert Costanza    The University of Vermont, USA

 

Ecological Economics: The concept of scale and its relation to allocation, distribution, and uneconomic growth

Herman E. Daly    University of Maryland, USA

 

What's wrong with GDP and growth? The need for alternative indicators

Jean Gadrey    Université Lille, France

 

 

Part VII

Globalist Distortions

 

What is Wrong with the “Official History of Capitalism”? - with special reference to the debates on globalisation and economic development

Ha-Joon Chang    Cambridge University, UK

 

Should the study of transnational companies be part of the economics syllabus?

Grazia Ietto-Gillies    London South Bank University, UK

 

Would a Latin American Economics Make Sense?

Ana Maria Bianchi    University of Sao Paulo, Brazil