The Narrative Approach in Economics

La démarche narrative en économie

Hervé Dumez and Alain Jeunemaitre
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Hervé Dumez: CRG - Centre de recherche en gestion - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Alain Jeunemaitre: CRG - Centre de recherche en gestion - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Economic analysis appears primarily based on modelisation and making use of quantitative methods. In particular narratives on case studies which had for long prevailed in industrial economics have noticeably receded. Yet, is it as straightforward? Is it not thinkable to propose a structured narrative approach that would have increased scientific legitimacy and added diversity in the field? The paper focuses on these issues.The first part discusses to what extent narratives may be said having disappeared from economics scientific production. It illustrates that they still play an effective ancillary role as a key source for theorisation. Evidence is given from the analysis of the qwerty story and its relationship to the emergence of the path dependency theory. Other seminal economic works are reviewed which show that, properly performed, the narrative approach has scope for bringing new insights under the dominant quantitative perspective.Then, the second part of the paper concentrates on the narrative approach as an exploratory method and on the circumstances under which it may lead to innovative developments.

Keywords: Narrative approach; methodological diversity; industrial economy; narrative; démarche narrative; diversité méthodologique; économie industrielle; narration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-07
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Revue Economique, 2005, 56 (4), pp.983-1005

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00262897

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