2007/11/30 by John B. Davis · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Economic theories and models #Economic Theory and Institutions #Economic Theory and Policy #Orthodoxy #Classics #Economic history #Economics #Sociology #Art history #History #Philosophy #Theology
paper · doi:10.1093/cje/bem048
openalex publication_date 2007/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This paper examines change on the economics research frontier, and asks whether the current competition between new research programmes may be supplanted by a new single dominant approach in the future. The paper discusses whether economics tends to be dominated by a single approach or reflect a pluralism of approaches, and argues that, historically, it has alternated between the two. It argues that orthodoxy usually emerges from heterodoxy, and interprets the division between orthodoxy and heterodoxy in terms of a core–periphery distinction. Regarding recent economics, the paper maps out two different types of combinations of new research programmes as being synchronic or diachronic in nature. It treats the new research programmes as a new kind of heterodoxy, and asks how a new orthodoxy might arise out of this new heterodoxy and traditional heterodoxy. It discusses this question by advancing two views regarding how to different types of combinations in the new research programmes might consolidate along the lines of three shared commitments with traditional heterodoxy to form a new orthodoxy in economics.