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Abstract:
Such persistent failure by macroeconomists deserves explanation. What do economists actually do? Are they scientists in search of general laws or are they actors governed by the rules of their academic sub-fields? This lecture provides a range of evidence in support of the latter. The uncertainty of provisional findings nurtures a rational mimetism. Some economists (financial mathematicians, for example) are trapped by powerful economic interests, and others tend to develop only specialized approaches rather than burrowing to the foundations of their discipline. Last but not least, an unprecedented professionalization has generated excessive specialization, i.e., a quasi-anomy of the division of labor into sub-sub-disciplines. Each field believes they have the answer - but no one is considering economic theory's overarching architecture.
