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sanity,
humanity and science
post-autistic economics
newsletter
No. 1, September 2000
To subscribe, send a blank email to pae_news@btinternet.com
FRANCE
The French economics mainstream is in a state of shock and apprehension
following dramatic and unexpected events late in June.
On the 21st the influential Paris daily, Le Monde, featured a
long article under the headline "Economics Students Denounce the Lack
of Pluralism in the Teaching Offered". Economics students at
the École Normale Supérieure, France's premier institution of higher
learning, were circulating with great success a petition protesting against
an excessive mathematical formalisation.
The petition notes "a real schizophrenia" created by
making modelling "an end in itself" and thereby
cutting economics off from reality and forcing it into a state
of "autism". The students, said a
sympathetic Le Monde, call for an end to the hegemony of
neoclassical theory and approaches derived from it, in favour of a
pluralism that will include other approaches, especially those
which permit the consideration of "concrete realities". Le
Monde found French economists of renown, including Michel Vernières,
Jean-Paul Fitoussi and Daniel Cohen, willing to speak out in support of the
students. Fitoussi, current head of the jury of the economics'
agrégation, said that "the students are right to denounce the way
economics is generally taught" and that the over-use of mathematics
"leads to a disembodiment of economic discourse". Daniel
Cohen, economics professor at the École Normale Supérieure, spoke of
"the pathological role" played by mathematics in
economics. Meanwhile, The Minister of Education, Jack Lang,
assured Le Monde that he would study closely the appeal
from the students.
French radio and television also reported the students complaints
and confirmed their legitimacy. On the 21st, BFM said that it
was now recognized that "the teaching of economics no longer
had any relation with the real world" and that "this
discipline is going through an undeniable crisis". Also
on the 21st, L'Humanité quoted extensively from the students' open
letter, while noting that in recent years several renown economists had
expressed similar views.
On the 23rd, Les Echos reported that a government report on
university economics teaching had reached conclusions similar to those
of the students. In their lengthy article, Les Echos noted
that it is increasingly recognized that economics' "malaise is
general and of longstanding" and that "under the guise of being
scientific" it has cultivated an anti-scientific environment
"which leaves no room for reflection and debate".
On the 26th, the weekly, Marianne, carried an article
about the student petition against "dogmatism" in the teaching
of economics and for its replacement by "a pluralism of
explanations". Marianne said that the petition, which was
now on the Web, had 500 signatures, as well as growing support from
economics teachers and interest from the highest levels of the French
government.
On June 30th, Le Nouvel Economiste, referring to the students'
petition and "mobilisation", declared that economics had succumbed
to a "pathological taste for a-priori ideologies and mathematical
formalisation disconnected from reality." Economics, it continued,
should give up its false emulation of physics and "should instead look
to the human sciences".
In July, French media interest continued to fuel the mobilisation.
On the 3rd, La Tribune featured a long article titled "Why a
Reform of the Teaching of Economics". It began by saying that all
concerned parties agree that economics is in crisis and that "a debate
should be opened on this subject" and that the students' initiative
aimed to bring this about. Economics, said La Tribune, had
become lost in "mondes imaginaires" and "l'économie de
Robinson Crusoé" and intellectually enfeebled by "the
dogmatism that reigns in the teaching of the discipline." Alternatives
Economiques carried an article titled "The Revolt of the
Students" which noted that French Nobel Prize winner, Maurice Allais
had, despite his mathematical approach, come to conclusions similar to
those of the students.
L'Express, France's equivalent to Time, carried
an article "L'économie, science autiste?", which aired the
students' analysis and complaints. It also reported that the students'
petition now had more than 600 signatures, and that their teachers were now
starting a petition of their own in support.
On the 22nd of July, Politis reported on the students' cause and on
the --"autism" into which economics had fallen in consequence of
its "obsession to produce a social physics". Politis noted
that student support for the petition was widespread, including not only
students from the most prestigious universities, but also from the less
celebrated, both in Paris and in the provinces. "Pluralism should
be part of the cultural base of economists." Instead,
"neoclassical theory dominates because it rests on a simple set of
axioms, easily mathematized." The coming academic year, concluded
Politis, "promises to be agitated."
We have learned that the economics students' petition now has 800 signatures
and the economists' petition 147. The latter includes some of the most
illustrious names in French economics, e.g., Robert Boyer, André Orléan,
Michel Aglietta, Jean-Paul Fitoussi and Daniel Cohen. It concludes by
calling for "a national conference that will open a public debate
for all."
UNITED STATES
At last month's 10th World Congress of Social Economics at the
University of Cambridge, American participants reported that in the USA the
purge of non-neoclassical and non-mathematically oriented economists from
university faculties continues.
Conferees spoke of the increasing "stalinization" of the
profession. Unlike in France where the fight-back has begun, in the
States there are not yet signs of the formation of the critical mass
needed to turn economics away from 19th century dogmas. It is agreed ,
however, that the number of academic economists in American who are out of
sympathy with the orthodoxy comprise a sizeable minority. But they are
fragmented, often intimidated and lack the means of joining together to exert
their collective weight and moral authority. Meanwhile, it was agreed,
the American economics' clock runs backwards.
American economists at the World Congress traded horror stories about the new
wave of neo-classical "stalinization". History of economic
thought courses are now being targeted as sources of ideas whereby students
might question or place in perspective orthodoxy. The goal is to create
"history-free environments" in which students can be indoctrinated
"more efficiently" into the neo-classical/mainstream belief
system. For example, it was reported that from this fall the University
of North Carolina is discontinuing all history of thought courses.
American participants also bemoaned plunging standards of literacy among
economics graduate students and colleagues as a consequence of the
mathematics fetish. The illiteracy problem is said to be particularly
acute among new economics PhDs, many of whom are incapable of reading with
comprehension a page of complex prose, such as one from The General
Theory.
UNITED KINGDOM
The ideas expressed by the French students will have a familiar ring to
readers of Tony Lawson's Economics and Reality (1997). But in
Lawson's UK it is reported that economics students, although restless, are
not yet rebellious. Meanwhile it is rumoured that a French translation
of Economics and Reality is imminent.
BELGIUM
Interest in the reform campaign launched in France spread quickly to
Belgium. On June 24th under the heading "Economie autiste",
the daily, Le Soir, both reported on the events in France and
offered its own analysis of neoclassical economics as a quaint political
ideology masquerading as science.
A week later Le Soir featured a lengthy article on the crisis
in economics. It draws on a recent report by Michel
Vernières, commissioned by the French government to investigate the
teaching of economics. Vernières emphasises that economic theories are
devices for conceptualizing reality. "Pedagogically, it is
therefore essential to articulate conceptual reflection and empirical
investigation. . . . [and] to underline the plurality of approaches
and the overall coherence of these approaches."
Bernard Paulré, referring especially to neoclassical theory, said that
mathematics is often used to hide "the emptiness of the propositions and
the absence of any concern for operational relevance." He
said that in addition to a-priori axioms, it is necessary for
economics "to take account of institutions, of history, of the
strategies of actors and of groups, of sociological dimensions, etc.."
This newsletter aims to link
people wishing to bring sanity, humanity and science back to
economics. To this end, YOU may help significantly by forwarding
this issue to 10 sympathetic colleagues and/or students.
YOU may also help by
emailing relevant news items, thoughts and suggestions to: pae_news@btinternet.com
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