Guy Routh’s Formidable Critique of Neoclassical Economics

Posted in : - Blog -, - Book reviews -, Academics and Policy, Economic evolution on by : petersen Comments: 0

Citing an Address to the American Economic Association by its then President J.K.Galbraith, Guy Routh emphasised that neoclassical economics is based on foundations which ‘tax capacity for belief’: consumers’ sovereignty , maximisation of profits and subordination of the firm to the market’. Routh goes on to suggest that orthodox economics ignores facts and makes deductions on assumptions ‘plucked from the air. It studies imaginary purely economic phenomena of universal validity without history. Man and society are stripped of their attributes, as if they could exist without psychological, legal, historical or moral dimensions. In effect, orthodox economics – by which term Routh often refers to neoclassical economics -becomes a matter of faith and immune to criticism. (Routh, 1975, page 25,Senker and Brady, 1989 pages 155-158)

REFERENCES

Routh, Guy,1975,The Origin of Economic Ideas, First Edition, Macmillan
Routh, Guy,1989,The Origin of Economic Ideas, Second Edition, Macmillan
Senker,P. and Brady,T.1989, Corporate strategy: skills, education and training, in Dodgson,M.,1989. Technology Strategy and the Firm: management and public policy, Longman,pages 155-158