Modern Guide to Philosophy of Economics

Edited by Harold Kincaid, Professor, School of Economics, Faculty of Commerce, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Don Ross, Professor, School of Society, Politics, and Ethics, University College Cork, Ireland; Professor, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Program Director for Methodology, Center for Economic Analysis of Risk, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, US

• Contents:1 Introduction: useful philosophy of economics 1Harold Kincaid and Don Ross2 Utility measurement: some contemporary concerns 14Nathaniel T. Wilcox3 Making progress on causal inference in economics 28Harold Kincaid4 Experimental design and Bayesian interpretation 66Glenn W. Harrison5 Randomised trials in economics 90Seán M. Muller6 Are economists’ self-perceptions as epistemically superiorself-defeating? 127Jack Wright7 Gender biases in economics 146Julie A. Nelson8 On the foundations of behavioural and experimental economics 157Andreas Ortmann9 Modelling Homo sociologicus : social influence andinterdependent behaviour in economics 182Michiru Nagatsu10 Welfare economics in large worlds: welfare and publicpolicies in an uncertain environment 208Guilhem Lecouteux11 Poverty measurement and mitigation: a case study ofcontestation and compromise in South Africa 234Julian May12 Core models in macroeconomics 254Aki Lehtinen13 The nature of DSGE macroeconomics 284Alex Rosenberg14 Theory and evidence as drivers of economists’ opinionsregarding the impact of fiscal stimulus 312Edward E. Leamer and Sumit Shinde15 Everyday economics 343Don Ross and Matthew TownshendIndex

'This collection of essays is a naturalist take on modern attitudes to the theory and practice of economics. The contributors are naturalists in the sense that biologists understand the term--they comment on what is actually going on in the world of economic research, and how it fits into a general scheme of things. They are modern in the sense that they are not turning over the same old ground, but genuinely thinking anew about the future of economics. Anybody interested in the philosophy of economics will find plenty to agree and disagree with in this timely collection.'