ABSTRACT
Philosophers of science have given short shrift to the internal dynamics; they assume that researchers have a desire to find the truth and do their best to answer questions that will advance science. Deriving the financial support for research requires different skills than does actually doing research, and there is a difficulty of deciding what advancement is. In the absence of an agreed-upon specific set of questions researchers are attempting to answer, most research is done and most papers are written to establish positions for internal reasons. Economics research has become more a move in a game of chess than a search for understanding reality. Rational expectations are a neat idea and make the analysis of expectations an integral part of economic analysis. Economists who follow the academic route must publish their ideas in the form of articles, preferably in the best journals. Strong incentives toward modeling exist in both the suppliers and demanders of economic ideas conveyed in textbooks.
