PLEA FOR A PLURALISTIC AND RIGOROUS ECONOMICS
The following ‘plea’ was drafted and circulated among prominent members of the economics profession by Geoff Hodgson, Uskali Mäki, and eirdre Mc!loskey" #t was signed by $$ leading economists %including four &obel 'aureates% and published as an ad(ertisement )paid for by *++ in the May -../ edition of the American the American Economic Review" Review" ‘We the undersigned are concerned with the threat to economic science posed by intellectual monopol monopoly. y. Economi Economists sts today today enforc enforcee a monopol monopolyy of method method or core core assump assumptio tions, ns, often often defended on no better ground than it constitutes the “mainstream.” Economists will advocate free competition, but will not practice practice it in the maretplace of ideas.! ‘"onse ‘"onse#ue #uentl ntly, y, we call call for a new spirit spirit of plural pluralism ism in economi economics, cs, involv involving ing criti critical cal conversation conversation and tolerant tolerant communicatio communication n between between differe different nt approaches. approaches. $uch pluralism pluralism should not undermine the standards of rigor% an economics that re#uires itself to face all the arguments will be a more, not a less, rigorous science.! ‘We believe that the new pluralism should be reflected in the character of scientific debate, in the range of contributions in its &ournals, and in the training and hiring of economists.! The abo(e te0t was signed by the following leading economists1 2bramo(it3, Moses4 2rthur, 5" 6rian 20elrod, 7obert 6laug, Mark4 6oulding, 8enneth4 !owling, 8eith !yert, 7ichard M"4 ay, 7ichard H" a(idson, 9aul eane, 9hyllis4 enison, +dward4 esai, Meghnad *reeman, !hristopher4 *rey, 6runo *urubotn, +irik Galbraith, :ohn 8enneth4 Georgescu;7oegen, &"4 Goodwin, 7ichard4 Granger, !li(e 5" :"<4 Grandmont, :ean;Michel Harcourt, Geoffrey Heilbroner, 7obert4 * Nobel Laureate
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Hirschman, 2lbert4 8indleberger, !harles4 8ornai, :anos 'aidler, a(id 'eibenstein, Har(ey4 Matthews, 7obin !" =" Mayer, Thomas Minsky, Hyman4 Modigliani, *ranco<4 &elson, 7ichard =lson, Mancur4 9asinetti, 'uigi 9erlman, Mark4 7othschild, 8urt >amuelson, 9aul<4 >hubik, Martin >imon, Herbert<4 >panos, 2ris Tinbergen, :an<4 Tsuru, >higeto4 ?ickers, ?ickers, ouglas 5eintraub, 7oy + Since deceased
