The 1-2-3 Toolbox of Mainstream Economics: Promising Everything, Delivering Nothing

Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan

No 2021/03, Working Papers on Capital as Power from Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism

Abstract: We write this essay for both lay readers and scientists, though mainstream economists are welcome to enjoy it too. Our subject is the basic toolbox of mainstream economics. The most important tools in this box are demand, supply and equilibrium. All mainstream economists – as well as many heterodox ones – use these tools, pretty much all the time. They are essential. Without them, the entire discipline collapses. But in our view, these are not scientific tools. Economists manipulate them on paper with impeccable success (at least in their own opinion). But the manipulations are entirely imaginary. Contrary to what economists tell us, demand, supply and equilibrium do not carry over to the actual world: they cannot be empirically identified; they cannot be observed, directly or indirectly; and they certainly cannot be objectively measured. And this is a problem because science without objective empirical tools is hardly science at all.

Keywords: demand; econometrics; equilibrium; neoclassical economics; science; supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C01 E13 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme, nep-hpe, nep-mac, nep-ore and nep-pke
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/231742/1/2 ... 3_toolbox_wpcasp.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:capwps:202103

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers on Capital as Power from Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().