Turn in Recent Economics and Return of Orthodoxy

45 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2007

See all articles by John B. Davis

John B. Davis

University of Amsterdam; Marquette University

Date Written: May 2007

Abstract

This paper examines change on the economics research frontier, and asks whether the current competition between new research programs may be supplanted by a new single dominant approach in the future. The paper discusses whether economics tends to be dominated by a single approach or reflect a pluralism of approaches, and argues that historically it has alternated between the two. It argues that orthodoxy usually emerges from heterodoxy, and interprets the division between orthodoxy and heterodoxy in terms of a core-periphery distinction. Regarding recent economics, the paper maps out two different types of combinations of new research programs as being synchronic or diachronic in nature. It treats the new research programs as a new kind of heterodoxy, and asks how a new orthodoxy might arise out of this new heterodoxy and traditional heterodoxy. It discusses this question by advancing two views regarding how the two different types of combinations in the new research programs might consolidate along the lines of three shared commitments with traditional heterodoxy to form a new orthodoxy in economics.

Keywords: recent economics, orthodoxy, heterodoxy, core-periphery

JEL Classification: B2, B5

Suggested Citation

Davis, John B. and Davis, John B., Turn in Recent Economics and Return of Orthodoxy (May 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1004064 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1004064

John B. Davis (Contact Author)

Marquette University ( email )

P.O. Box 1881
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881
United States

University of Amsterdam ( email )

Amsterdam
Netherlands

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
498
Abstract Views
2,648
Rank
104,047
PlumX Metrics