The Constitution of Economic Expertise : Social Science in the Public Square, Past and Present

What determines the kinds of questions economists ask and the answers they find convincing? More generally, why are the institutions that constitute scholarly economics the way they are? I answer both of these questions by positing that within the modern economics profession, it is plausible that economic ideas compete on margins unrelated to truth. The adaptive value of certain kinds of economics can explain the prevalence of the economics that is currently practiced. Since survivability and adaptability are inherently related to the process that yields them, I explore the history of the economics profession in the United States, tracing it back to the earliest days of US higher education. This perspective strongly suggests we should be skeptical of the argument that modern economics has “passed the market test.”