Addressing the Malaise in Neoclassical Economics: A Call for Partial Models

Ron Wallace (ronald.wallace@ucf.edu)
Additional contact information
Ron Wallace: Department of Anthropology, University of Central Florida, USA

Economic Thought, 2019, vol. 8, issue 1, 40 - 52

Abstract: Economics is currently experiencing a climate of uncertainty regarding the soundness of its theoretical framework and even its status as a science. Much of the criticism is within the discipline, and emphasises the alleged failure of the neoclassical viewpoint. This article proposes the deployment of partial modelling, utilising Boolean networks (BNs), as an inductive discovery procedure for the development of economic theory. The method is presented in detail and then linked to the Semantic View of Theories (SVT), closely identified with Bas van Fraassen and Patrick Suppes, in which models are construed as mediators creatively negotiating between theory and reality. It is suggested that this approach may be appropriate for economics and, by implication, for any science in which there is no consensus theory, and a wide range of viewpoints compete for acceptance.

Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://et.worldeconomicsassociation.org/papers/add ... -for-partial-models/ (text/html)
http://et.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/2019/06/WEA-ET-8-1-Wallace.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:wea:econth:v:8:y:2019:i:1:p:40

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Thought is currently edited by Kyla Rushman

More articles in Economic Thought from World Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jake McMurchie (jake@jakemcmurchie.net).