Economyths
Wiley hardcover edition
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| Author | David Orrell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Economics |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Icon Books and John Wiley & Sons |
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Publication date
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July 2010 |
| Media type | Print, e-book |
| Pages | 288 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 665817373 |
| 338 | |
| LC Class | HB3722.O77 2010 |
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.
The book has ten chapters, each of which concentrates on a separate “economyth”. These are summarized on p. 6 as follows:
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.
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.”
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Wikipedia