The great crash of 2008 and the reform of economics
Великий кризис 2008 года и реформа экономической науки
2009-08-17
SCID: 54.1/t68qay95
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2008 economic crasheconomic modelling and quantificationfinancial collapse warningsmarket individualist ideologyreform of economics
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Abstract (AI)
The 2008 economic crash led to remarkable shifts of opinion among world leaders. Does this crisis create favourable conditions for the reform and revitalisation of economics itself—from a subject dominated by mathematical techniques to a discipline more oriented to understanding real-world institutions and actors? And why were warnings of financial collapse not heeded? Recent shortcomings are partly related to the global triumph of market individualist ideology and partly to the exaggerated roles of modelling and quantification. These failures of economics are partly peculiar to the discipline and also a result of other wider institutional and cultural forces.
Key Findings
1
Economics’ shortcomings reflect both discipline-specific problems and broader institutional and cultural forces.
2
The 2008 financial crash created conditions for reconsidering economics and potentially revitalizing it as a discipline.
3
The failure to anticipate the crisis was also linked to exaggerated reliance on economic modelling and quantification.
4
The paper argues that economics should shift from mathematical technique dominance toward understanding real-world institutions and economic actors.
5
Warnings of financial collapse were ignored partly because market individualist ideology had become globally dominant.
Research Object
economics as a discipline after the 2008 economic crash
Research Subject
the discipline’s shortcomings and prospects for reform, including the roles of mathematical modelling, quantification, market individualist ideology, and institutional and cultural forces in failing to anticipate the financial collapse
Publication Details
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2009-08-17
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