7.6 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print, e-book ISBN 978-1848311480 Subject Economics | 3.8/5 Goodreads Publication date July 2010 Pages 288 pp Originally published July 2010 Genre Non-fiction OCLC 665817373 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publisher Icon Books and John Wiley & Sons Similar David Orrell books, Non-fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Barry kushner economyths skeptics in the pub
Economyths is a book by the mathematician David Orrell about the problems with mainstream economics, written for the general reader. The book was initially published in 2010 by Icon Books in the UK with the subtitle Ten Ways Economics That Gets It Wrong, and by John Wiley & Sons in North America (their subtitle omitted the “That”). Icon published a revised version in 2012, with the subtitle How the Science of Complex Systems Is Transforming Economic Thought. Translated versions were also published in Brazil, China, Japan and Korea.
Contents
Summary
The book has ten chapters, each of which concentrates on a separate “economyth”. These are summarized on p. 6 as follows:
- The economy can be described by economic laws.
- The economy is made up of independent individuals
- The economy is stable
- Economic risk can be easily managed using statistics
- The economy is rational and efficient
- The economy is gender-neutral
- The economy is fair
- Economic growth can continue forever
- Economic growth will make us happy
- Economic growth is always good
In each case, Orrell explains the role that the myth plays in economics, discusses the problems it creates, and proposes solutions and alternatives based on ideas from areas such as complexity, network theory, nonlinear dynamics, heterodox economics, and so on.
Reviews
In a Bloomberg piece on business books, economist William White said that the book “Lists 10 crucial assumptions (the economy is simple, fair, stable, etc.) and argues both entertainingly and convincingly that each one is totally at odds with reality. Orrell also suggests that adopting the science of complex systems would radically improve economic policymaking.”
The economist Robert Nelson wrote in the International Journal of Social Economics that the book suffered from a number of omissions, in particular a fuller exploration of “the religious roles played by neo-classical economics.” However he concludes that “Whatever its omissions and other failings, much of the book is devoted to making a strong case for one very important finding – the intellectual poverty of neo-classical economics … A wide audience including many non-economists could benefit from reading it.”
In National Review, economist Michael Yates also noted some omissions, such as a discussion of worker organisation, but wrote that the book “makes sound recommendations that economists utilize methods of analysis and techniques that have proven their worth in other fields of study … Economists ignore such research at their peril.”