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      Book

      Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics
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      Book

      Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics

      DOI link for Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics

      Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics book

      Why economists do not reject refuted theories

      Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics

      DOI link for Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics

      Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics book

      Why economists do not reject refuted theories
      ByAltug Yalcintas
      Edition 1st Edition
      First Published 2016
      eBook Published 11 March 2016
      Pub. Location London
      Imprint Routledge
      DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315781167
      Pages 188
      eBook ISBN 9781315781167
      Subjects Economics, Finance, Business & Industry, Humanities
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      Yalcintas, A. (2016). Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics: Why economists do not reject refuted theories (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315781167

      ABSTRACT

      Is economics always self-corrective? Do erroneous theorems permanently disappear from the market of economic ideas? Intellectual Path Dependence in Economics argues that errors in economics are not always corrected. Although economists are often critical and open-minded, unfit explanations are nonetheless able to reproduce themselves. The problem is that theorems sometimes survive the intellectual challenges in the market of economic ideas even when they are falsified or invalidated by criticism and an abundance of counter-evidence.

      A key question which often gets little or no attention is: why do economists not reject theories when they have been refuted by evidence and falsified by philosophical reasoning? This book explores the answer to this question by examining the phenomenon of intellectual path dependence in the history of economic thought. It argues that the key reason why economists do not reject refuted theories is the epistemic costs of starting to use new theories. Epistemic costs are primarily the costs of scarcity of the most valued element in academic production: time. Epistemic scarcity overwhelmingly dominates the evolution of scientific research in such a way that when researchers start off a new research project, they allocate time between replicable and un-replicable research.

      This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the methodology, philosophy and history of economics.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      part |2 pages

      Part I Epistemic responsibility of economists

      chapter 1|40 pages

      Matters of opinion or questionable research practices?

      part |2 pages

      Part II The economic construction of sciences

      chapter 2|44 pages

      Explaining epistemic hystereses

      chapter 3|36 pages

      Sciences between Scylla and Charybdis

      chapter 4|26 pages

      Error: a common tragedy in sciences

      part |2 pages

      Part III Concluding remarks

      chapter 5|15 pages

      Economics as part of a system of research ethics

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