Economics for a creative world: some agreements and some criticism

In: Journal of institutional economics, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 47-53

Abstract

AbstractThese notes on the article by Koppl et al. (2014) contain some agreements and some criticism. Written upon the invitation of the editor-in-chief of this journal, they express personal views of an economist who has been searching in a similar direction – that is, for a better economic theory, more relevant to problems of modern, innovative, and thus possibly called 'creative' economies than the existing theories – but in a somewhat different, less abstract, and to standard economic terminology closer style. The strongest agreements are with both parts of the article's objective: to move away from mechanistic economic models and toward a more evolutionary and institutional approach to economic theory and policy. The pursuit of the first part is most seriously criticized for two illegitimate extensions of initially sound arguments, and the pursuit of the second part, for climbing up to a too abstract metatheoretic level, from which it loses the view of the concrete results that modern economics has already obtained.