The disciplinary influence of physics, biology, and chemistry on economic modelling: Overview and implications for understanding agricultural change

Martin Petrick

No 59517, Structural Change in Agriculture/Strukturwandel im Agrarsektor (SiAg) Working Papers from Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics

Abstract: Economic research on structural change in agriculture has repeatedly induced controversies about basic theoretical concepts, such as rational behaviour and equilibrium, and their analytical and political implications. To contribute to the epistemological dimension of this debate, the article gives an overview of three paradigms to economic modelling whose proponents have been inspired by physics, biology, and chemistry. The key concepts of general equilibrium theory, evolutionary economics and the “social chemistry” of Jon Elster are presented and compared. While all keep the idea that intentional individual action can explain aggregate outcomes that are nevertheless unintended, they differ in assumptions concerning preferences and the characteristics of coordination mechanisms. There is no consensus on what counts as a good scientific explanation. Similarly, views differ to what extent a spontaneous order in the economy has desirable properties. The emerging theoretical heterogeneity, I conclude, provides new opportunities for understanding agrarian change in contemporary society, of which a few are outlined.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; International Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24
Date: 2008-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/59517/files/wp1.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:ags:huscpw:59517

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.59517

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Structural Change in Agriculture/Strukturwandel im Agrarsektor (SiAg) Working Papers from Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().