One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Austrian School of Economics from its founding with Carl Menger in the 1870s has been that it has never seen economics in isolation from the other human sciences. Law, politics, philosophy have been freely drawn on throughout the development of economic analysis. And the purpose of these theoretical exercises was for the purpose of doing historical work.
The 20th century has seen a narrowing of economics into an isolated discipline, but that trend is now being reversed. I don't necessarily believe that all of these efforts at interdisciplinary work will be fruitful, but the fact that as a discipline economics is open to insights from other disciplines is not only promising, but essential to its progress.
See this nice article from Foreign Policy on this point.
A few comments on the Foreign Policy article. The author strikes a false note when he calls Carlyle as a witness. Carlyle was silly to refer call economics the dismal science, especially in 1849 when the poor were being emancipated from poverty at a great rate under policies that the dismal scientists would have by and large approved. For a review of the cost of living debate in the industrial revolution. http://www.ehs.org.uk/society/pdfs/Kirby%2025a.pdf
But then Carlyle was an economic illiterate and worse, a genuine reactionary, a racist and a precursor of fascism.
Moving on to the alleged lack of consensus in the profession, I seem to recall a survey that revealed about 90% support for free trade, or maybe just the undesirability of tariffs. Nobel Laureates offering conflicting advice? Many of the Laureates in economics were actually mathematicians who got into the ecomics department by clerical error, or perhaps a computer malfunction.
'“We do not really know what causes economic growth,” admits François Bourguignon, the chief economist at the World Bank.' Well try free trade under the rule of law, including property rights. Throw in the minimum state and a moral framework that includes honesty, thrift, compassion, self-reliance and enterprise.
"the devilish problems of the developing world". Don't worry, check out David Simon's fifty thinkers. Only joking, he missed Peter Bauer and Peter Boettke as well. http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/Simon/FiftyKeyThinkersonDevelopment.pdf
Posted by: Rafe | April 17, 2006 at 02:06 AM