Tacit preachments are the worst kind

Leland Yeager

Journal of Economic Methodology, 1995, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-33

Abstract: The article presents examples of economists pressing methodologies on students and professional colleagues without actually articulating, and thus exposing to critical examination, the methodological precepts being urged. Such behavior has twisted economic research and doctrine. Topics discussed (with various degrees of approval and disapproval) include the 'Cartesian' appeal to first principles, justificationism, supposed rigor, modeling, the decorative use of symbols, the parade of technique, abuses of econometrics, nonquantitative evidence, competition among hypotheses, fallacy-mongering, fads and frontiersmanship, academic incentives and games, the supposed analogy between markets for academic research and for ordinary goods, and clarity versus obscurantism. The article calls for exposing and examining tacit preachments. It calls on economists to support each other in resisting inappropriate pressures.

Keywords: methodology; macroeconomics; rigor; models; academia; incentives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1080/13501789500000001

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