The Financial Crisis in 2007 and 2008 Viewed from the Perspective of Economic Research

Many economists monitored the developments that led to the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 with concern. The course and depth of the crisis, however, came as a surprise to many. This paper discusses whether there are structural deficits in economic research which prevent a deeper analytical understanding of the current crisis. While research on specific aspects of the current crisis mechanisms and their structural causes has been pursued very actively in recent years, this research has not yet been incorporated into the mainstream of macroeconomics and finance – a fact that hinders analytical understanding of the crisis.