Sunday, May 9, 2010

European Economics at a Crossroads

I am pleased to announce the publication of my book with David Colander and Richard Holt, European Economics at a Crossroads, being issued in both hardcover and paper back simultaneously from Edward Elgar. Several years in the producing, this book is the sequel to our 2004, The Changing Face of Economics: Conversations with Cutting Edge Economists, which created a bit of a stir by arguing for the possible existence of "non-orthodox mainstream" economists, with someone like George Akerlof being an example of this peculiar breed. We also argued strongly for viewing the economics profession and intellectual development as being a complex adaptive process.

The new book continues this argument, but focuses on European economists and economics. The additional arguments involve the relationship between European economics and US economics. The former long protected many more heterodox intellectual traditions within national language traditions and publications and practices. However, this was also associated with hierarchical and stifling setups. The pressure to move to English and imitate US standards and practices, partly driven by Europeans attending US universities and returning to Europe, has both weakened these hierarchies and moved much of Europe to imitate US economics in many ways. We argue that while some of this is a good thing, there is a serious danger of imitating leftover third-rate orthodox US economics at its worst. Based on its past traditions, Europe has the opportunity to develop its own alternative and possibly superior approaches.

Following two opening chapters laying out these arguments and their connection with our earlier complexity arguments, there are a set of interviews with Alan Kirman, Ernst Fehr, Cars Hommes, Mauro Gallegati and Laura Gardini, Tonu Puu, Soren Johansen and Katarina Juselius, Geoffrey Hodgson, Joan Martinez Alier, and Robert Boyer. These are followed by two reflective interviews discussing the others and broader issues with Janos Kornai and Reinhard Selten.

2 comments:

Max jr said...


"We argue that while some of this is a good thing, there is a serious danger of imitating leftover third-rate orthodox US economics at its worst. Based on its past traditions, Europe has the opportunity to develop its own alternative and possibly superior approaches."


What role does the ranking system play in all this? Doesn't it reward adherence to orthodoxy and penalise criticism? Maybe the first thing the Europeans need to do is get rid of it and rely on informal and broad based criteria?

Needless to add, looking forward to the book.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

gih,

Thanks.

Max jr.

The matter of the ratings system is something that we discuss at length both in the opening chapter and it also comes up in some of the interviews as this is something that varies across countries. We do not oppose some kind of ratings system, but suggest that the Europeans should develop their own that gives more weight to journals that encourage alternative approaches, with more of them non-US-based.