Plural economics

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Plural economics (internationally mostly real world economics , known in France as post-autistic economics ) is a movement of teachers and students of economics active in England , France, Germany and other countries who are teaching the alleged "theoretical monoculture of neoclassical theory , Research and Policy ”. In Germany, the initiative is anchored in the Plural Economy Network founded in 2003 . It sees itself as a branch of the movement originally founded in France for a “post-autistic” economy, which described the disregard of social context factors outside the markets in a form that was perceived as discriminatory as “ autistic ”. This movement was organized in 2011 in the World Economics Association (WEA) based in Bristol, which was founded by Edward Fullbrook and around 3,000 other, initially mostly British economists . She changed her name due to protests from many people with autism. In 2016 the WEA had over 13,000 members worldwide.

Well-known representatives of the movement and the people associated with this movement are Bernd Senf , Arne Heise , Helge Peukert and Silja Graupe in Germany, Walter Ötsch and Jakob Kapeller in Austria . Some members of the movement are close to the attac network and the environmental movement . Since 2001, the movement has had the open-access journal Real-world economics review at its disposal, which is now the journal of the World Economics Association (where it is run as a WEA journal). There are also two other open access journals of the World Economics Association: World Economic Review and Economic Thought, the latter being published as an open peer review journal.

history

The economist Bernard Guerrien is seen as the initial driving force of the “post-autistic” movement . It was created in the spring of 2000 by dissatisfied economics students at the French Sorbonne . The “post-autistic economy” became known to a wider public in June 2000 after an interview in the newspaper Le Monde and in 2001 received support from 27 Cambridge doctoral students . In German-speaking countries were founded from 2003 working groups, many of which in the network plurals Economics aufgingen. An important journal of the current is the Real-world economics review , founded in 2000 , in which u. a. also published by James K. Galbraith .

In 2012, for the first time in the history of the annual meetings of the Verein für Socialpolitik, there was a pluralistic supplementary event , which was organized by real-world economists and the plural economists and in which Peter Bofinger also took part.

Since 2013, institutional locations have emerged that are explicitly based on a plural economy. In addition to other impulses, the pursuit of an alternative economic education was the founding impulse of the Cusanus University , which was largely supported by Silja Graupe . This was done in close cooperation with former students from the Bayreuth Working Group for Plural Economics. Since 2015 it has been possible to study the accredited alternative economics master there. Since 2016, the University of Siegen has been offering a master’s degree in plural economics for the first time.

In 2016, the Society for Socio-Economic Education and Science was founded as a specialist society for scientific teaching and science-oriented education in the field of socio-economics . For the first time, the issue of plural economics was taken up institutionally by a German specialist society. Under the label Transformative Economics , in 2016 for the first time over 20 economists called for and outlined a fundamental new beginning for economics.

Positions

Basically criticize representatives of plurals economics in their view, unrealistic theories and mathematical modeling of Economics . HT Johnson pointed out as early as 2000 that, since the 1980s, the mathematical models of economic events were confused with reality by managers who were only trained theoretically in business schools and no longer practically. “In their hands the map was the territory.” This position was followed by more and more economists from other camps after the financial crisis of 2008. In 2015, Paul Romer once again criticized the equilibrium theoretical premises of the mathematical growth theory of his colleagues Lucas and Prescott.

Furthermore, it is pointed out that economics (although it differs in very specific points from a social science, see Economics # Classification of economics in the scientific canon ) is a social science , not a natural science . Therefore, post-autistic economists prefer a pluralism of theories and methods. The economy requires a multitude of complementary , but not necessarily competing approaches and methods, e.g. B. also that of participating observation . Assumptions like those of limited rationality or the inclusion of institutions, state or social norms are already common property in economics today; However, the mathematical modeling remained an overarching supra- paradigm , which is followed by the great stream of individual investigations without a truth-theoretical examination. The economic system analysis is inadequately anchored in today's economics; the restriction to “small models” makes the economist an apolitical and ahistorical expert.

requirements

The international student umbrella organization International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics (ISIPE) made the following demands in its open letter:

  • “Increased attitudes of teachers and researchers who bring theoretical and methodological diversity to the courses in economics;
  • Creating and disseminating material for plural courses;
  • Intensive cooperation with social sciences or humanities faculties or the establishment of special institutions to take responsibility for interdisciplinary programs. "

In addition, theoretical pluralism, methodological pluralism and interdisciplinarity are required. The goal is "an open, diverse and plural economics".

Study on economics studies in Germany

In a study of over 57 Bachelor programs in economics, the Network Plural Economics comes to the conclusion that only 1.3 percent of the courses are "reflexive", i.e. they concern subjects such as the history of economic thought , business ethics , philosophy of science and economic history . On the other hand, the proportions of business administration and legal events are in the foreground in an international comparison. This was also approved by representatives of the university: Economics professor Volker Caspari ( TU Darmstadt ) said in an article in the FAZ: “First of all, economics courses contain too much business administration. If they were to be reduced, there would automatically be room for theoretical history and economic history. ”The overemphasis on business administration and law is a“ fraudulent label ”. In view of the difficult labor market for economists, however, a more business-oriented orientation is a competitive advantage that universities apparently cannot avoid.

Alternatives

Plural Economics aims to examine economic phenomena with a plurality of interdisciplinary approaches from all relevant schools of economics. It is based on different approaches, some of which reject the idea of Homo oeconomicus . Approaches that are shared are:

criticism

Some important representatives of the various economic currents (including Olivier Blanchard , a representative of the New Consensus Macro-economics , who assumes that the elements of supply economy and Keynesianism can be integrated, as well as Hans-Werner Sinn ) denounce the criticism brought about by the post-autistic movement decidedly as nonsensical (meaning: "The hairs on the back of the economist's neck stand on end when a contradiction between ecology and economy is conjured up in public.") a. the successes of neoclassical theory , which took up elements of Keynesianism and to which they attribute a positive influence on the prosperity that has arisen in recent decades . In addition, in their opinion, the successes of the money market theory shaped by deregulation speak for its correctness and applicability. Sinn argues that economics uses neoclassical models to "find faults in the market like a sniffer" (i.e. cases of market failure) and then to fix them, e.g. B. by pricing climate-damaging emissions.

Volume Economy and Society of the BPB

In 2015, the Federal Agency for Civic Education published the volume Economics and Society on plural economics. After criticism by the Federation of German Employers' Associations about the “one-sidedness of the publication and lack of business friendliness”, its distribution was initially banned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior . After complaints from trade unions about the “interference with the autonomy of the federal headquarters”, the ban was lifted and at the same time an order was made to create a “conceptually redesigned” volume.

Web links

literature

  • Hugh Stretton: Economics. A New Introduction . Pluto Press, London, etc. 1999, ISBN 978-0-7453-1531-7 .
  • Edward Fullbrook: The crisis in economics: Economics As Social Theory. Routledge, 2003, ISBN 978-0-4153-0898-4
  • Edward Fullbrook (Ed.): Real World Economics: A Post-Autistic Economics Reader. Anthem Press, 2007, ISBN 1-84331-236-0 .
  • Steve Keen : Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences. Zedbooks, London 2002, ISBN 1-85649-992-8
  • Katrine Marçal: Machonomics. The economy and women. CH Beck Paperback 6235, 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-68861-4 .
  • Thomas Dürmeier, Tanja von Egan-Krieger & Helge Peukert (eds.): The blinkers of economics. Postautistic economics for pluralistic economics. Metropolis, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-89518-564-7 .
  • Birger P. Priddat: Economics of Persuasion. Economy between market, communication and persuasion , Marburg 2015.
  • David J. Petersen et al .: Perspectives on a Plural Economy. Springer Vieweg . Springer Fachmedien, Wiesbaden 2019, ISBN 978-3-658-16144-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the World Economic Association , accessed May 4, 2016. The website of the French movement Pour un Enseignement Pluraliste dans le Supérieur en Économie (PEPS-Économie) can be found at http://pepseco.wordpress.com/
  2. ↑ http://www.paecon.net/HistoryPAE.htm
  3. ^ History of the network. Network Plural Economics, accessed on March 31, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Mathias Ohanian: Real World Economics: German economists youngsters muck up. In: Financial Times Germany . Archived from the original on September 9, 2012 ; accessed on March 28, 2019 .
  5. ^ Schneidewind et al .: Transformative Economics. Retrieved April 18, 2017 .
  6. ↑ HT Johnson: Profit beyond measure: extraordinary results through attention to work and people . Free Press, New York 2000, p. 25.
  7. ^ Paul M. Romer: Mathiness in the Theory of Economic Growth . American Economic Review, 105 (5), pp. 89–93, online: [1]
  8. ↑ Helge Peukert: Real World Economics , in: WISU das Wirtschaftsstudium , 2/2013, p. 233 ff.
  9. ↑ a b International Student Appeal for Plural Economics. International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics, accessed June 5, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Philip Plickert: Universities student initiative complains about one-sided economics studies . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 23, 2016, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 26, 2016]).
  11. ↑ The current job market for economists , July 2015 Staufenbiel.de ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.staufenbiel.de
  12. ↑ They're like sniffer dogs , a comment by Sinn in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of November 1, 2014, accessed on January 20, 2015.
  13. ↑ Overall scientific management: Bettina Zurstrassen: Economy and Society. In: Federal Agency for Political Education . Retrieved July 5, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Bernd Kramer, Nalan Sipar: Lobby and School: Employers' Association stops business book. In: Der Spiegel . October 26, 2015, accessed July 5, 2020 .
  15. ^ Arne Semsrott : Distribution ban for BPB publications: We publish all documents. In: FragDenStaat . November 16, 2015, accessed July 5, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Deutschlandfunk.de , Andruck - Das Magazin für Politische Literatur , May 9, 2016, Gaby Mayr: Reading the riot act in economics (May 11, 2016)