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- Title
Two conceptions of economics and maximisation.
- Authors
Crespo, Ricardo F.
- Abstract
Economics has evolved from a ‘domain-focused’ conception, i.e. the study of specific kinds of human activities, to a ‘scarcity-based’ conception, i.e. the study of a particular approach to all human choices. It thus enlarged its domain and narrowed its perspective: instrumental maximising. This paper maintains that economics should be domain focused, with a core of scarcity-based analysis of its domain, integrated into a broader analysis. It also holds that the scarcity-based analysis of realities falling outside the economic domain is not economics, but rather a social science broader in respect to the field but narrower in respect to the analysis, and thus partial in its conclusions. Section 2 introduces these versions of economics, Section 3 links them to specific conceptions of rationality, Section 4 provides arguments for the paper’s thesis and Section 5 deals with two related versions of maximisation and argues for adopting one of them.
- Subjects
ECONOMICS; CHOICE (Psychology); SCARCITY; SOCIAL sciences; CIVILIZATION
- Publication
Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2013, Vol 37, Issue 4, p759
- ISSN
0309-166X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/cje/bes076