A Modern Guide to Philosophy of Economics
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A Modern Guide to Philosophy of Economics

9781788974455 Edward Elgar Publishing
Edited by Harold Kincaid, Professor, School of Economics, Faculty of Commerce, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Don Ross, Professor, School of Society, Politics, and Ethics, University College Cork, Ireland; Professor, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Program Director for Methodology, Center for Economic Analysis of Risk, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, US
Publication Date: 2021 ISBN: 978 1 78897 445 5 Extent: 384 pp
This insightful Modern Guide offers a broad coverage of questions and controversies encountered by contemporary economists. A refreshing approach to philosophy of economics, chapters comprise a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives, from lab and field experiments to macroeconomics and applied policy work, written using a familiar, accessible language for economists. 

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Critical Acclaim
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This insightful Modern Guide offers a broad coverage of questions and controversies encountered by contemporary economists. A refreshing approach to philosophy of economics, chapters comprise a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives, from lab and field experiments to macroeconomics and applied policy work, written using a familiar, accessible language for economists. 
 
Highlighting key areas of methodological controversy, the Modern Guide looks at estimating utility functions in choice data, causal modelling, and ethics in randomised control trials. Chapters further explore topical issues, including: economists’ attitudes to other disciplines; gender bias in economic research; methods of modelling social influence in economics; behavioural welfare economics; anti-poverty policy controversies; and inflexible reliance on DSGE models in macroeconomics. Furthermore, it explores the implications of the last financial crisis for macroeconomic confidence, and ways to adapt abstract theory to everyday policy advice.
 
Avoiding philosophical jargon, and with the majority of chapters written by economists, this Modern Guide will challenge economists and scholars of philosophy of economics to engage with different approaches to the topic. This will also be a useful tool for policy makers administering nudges, development initiatives, macro-forecasting and monetary policy.
Critical Acclaim
‘This collection of essays is a naturalist take on modern attitudes to the theory and practice of economics. The contributors are naturalists in the sense that biologists understand the term—they comment on what is actually going on in the world of economic research, and how it fits into a general scheme of things. They are modern in the sense that they are not turning over the same old ground, but genuinely thinking anew about the future of economics. Anybody interested in the philosophy of economics will find plenty to agree and disagree with in this timely collection.’
– Ken Binmore, University College London, UK
Contributors
Contributors: G.W. Harrison, H. Kincaid, E.E. Leamer, G. Lecouteux, A. Lehtinen, J. May, S.M. Muller, M. Nagatsu, J.A. Nelson, A. Ortmann, A. Rosenberg, D. Ross, S. Shinde, M. Townshend, N.T. Wilcox, J. Wright
Contents
Contents:

1 Introduction: useful philosophy of economics 1
Harold Kincaid and Don Ross
2 Utility measurement: some contemporary concerns 14
Nathaniel T. Wilcox
3 Making progress on causal inference in economics 28
Harold Kincaid
4 Experimental design and Bayesian interpretation 66
Glenn W. Harrison
5 Randomised trials in economics 90
Seán M. Muller
6 Are economists’ self-perceptions as epistemically superior
self-defeating? 127
Jack Wright
7 Gender biases in economics 146
Julie A. Nelson
8 On the foundations of behavioural and experimental economics 157
Andreas Ortmann
9 Modelling Homo sociologicus : social influence and
interdependent behaviour in economics 182
Michiru Nagatsu
10 Welfare economics in large worlds: welfare and public
policies in an uncertain environment 208
Guilhem Lecouteux
11 Poverty measurement and mitigation: a case study of
contestation and compromise in South Africa 234
Julian May
12 Core models in macroeconomics 254
Aki Lehtinen
13 The nature of DSGE macroeconomics 284
Alex Rosenberg
14 Theory and evidence as drivers of economists’ opinions
regarding the impact of fiscal stimulus 312
Edward E. Leamer and Sumit Shinde
15 Everyday economics 343
Don Ross and Matthew Townshend

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