Becoming Applied: The Transformation of Economics after 1970

Abstract

Abstract:This paper conjectures that economics has changed profoundly since the 1970s and that these changes involve a new understanding of the relationship between theoretical and applied work. Drawing on an analysis of John Bates Clark medal winners, it is suggested that the discipline became more applied, applied work being accorded a higher status in relation to pure theory than was previously the case. Discussing new types of applied work, the changing context of applied work, and new sites for applied work, the paper outlines a research agenda that will test the conjecture that there has been a changed understanding of the nature of applied work and hence of economics itself. JEL Codes: A10, B20, B40, C00

Macrodynamics of Economics: A Bibliometric History

“…We map how specialties have emerged, grown in relation to each other and (for some of them) disappeared. Our results nicely combine with more narrative accounts of the recent history of economics (for instance, Backhouse 2002, ch.14;Backhouse and Cherrier 2014;Morgan and Qin 2015): they confirms certain claims that can be found in the existing literature and identify intriguing patterns that invite more in-depth, qualitative research. (See section 5) Bibliometric data have been used in economics, but essentially for descriptive statistics with evaluative purposes -for instance, rankings of journals and most-cited authors (Kalaitzidakis, Mamuneas, and Stengos 2003;Kodrzycki and Yu 2006;Ritzberger 2008;Stern 2013;Zimmermann 2013;Card and DellaVigna 2013).…”

Theory and Measurement: Emergence, Consolidation and Erosion of a Consensus

“…The evidence just presented, along with Hamermesh's (2013) finding of a sharp diminution in the amount of purely theoretical research in the top journals, is arguably consistent with Backhouse and Cherrier's (2014) conjecture that there has been a change in the status accorded economic theory by the economics profession. Put differently, as compared to the 1970s, empirical microeconomists are paying less attention to theory in recent years.…”

“…We do this by analyzing large samples of empirical microeconomic articles in the top scholarly journals in economics from three different periods: 1951-55, 1973-77, and 2007-08. Two hypotheses guide this analysis. The first follows from Backhouse and Cherrier's (2014) sketch of the emergence, by the 1970s, of a broad consensus regarding the nature of microeconomic theory and how it should be used in empirical research. Building on their observations, we locate the seminal ideas underlying this consensus in three distinct approaches to empirical microeconomics in the early post-war period: the Cowles Commission approach to "econometric" research; the style of empirical microeconomic research developed at the University of Chicago beginning in the 1950s, and Leontief's input-output analysis.…”

Inside Job or Deep Impact? Extramural Citations and the Influence of Economic Scholarship

“…3 See Hamermesh (2013) and Backhouse and Cherrier (2017), among others. Backhouse and Cherrier (2014) uses the fields of Clark medalists as an indicator of economics' growing empiricism. Biddle and Hamermesh (2017) and Panhans and Singleton (2017) also document trends within empirical microeconomics, focusing on the movement away from Cowles-Commission-inspired structural empirical work.…”