The Synthesis of Economic Law, Evolution, and History

Abstract

It has long been criticized that history is almost entirely absent from orthodox economics. This deficiency is due to the fact that equilibrium and time make an odd couple. Because equilibrium is one of the crucial hard-core propositions of the research program it cannot be abandoned. This impedes the treatment of time in a methodologically acceptable manner. The orthodox approach is based on indefensible axioms which are in this paper replaced by objective structural axioms. This enables the synthesis of timeless economic laws, randomness, and goal-oriented human action, which are the essential elements of a formally consistent historical account.

Keywords: new framework of concepts, structure-centric, axiom set, cumulative causation, First Economic Law, Period Core, propensity function

JEL Classification: B49, B59, E17