The Microfoundations Delusion Metaphor and Dogma in the History of Macroeconomics

A generation ago Dudley Dillard wrote a famous article on the barter illusion in classical and neoclassical economics . Now John King has gone a step further and written about the microfoundations delusion. The illusion has been with us for a very long time, the delusion is of more recent vintage. Together they have blocked a basic understanding of macroeconomic and monetary phenomena at a time when they are most urgently needed. This is a book that had to be written, and we are fortunate that it is John King who has written it. Essential reading for our times. John Smithin, York University, Canada Contents Contents: 1. Introduction Part I: Microfoundations and the Philosophy of Science 2. Microfoundations as a (Bad) Metaphor 3. Microfoundations as Micro-reduction 4. Two Case Studies: Biology and Social Science Part II: Microfoundations in the History of Economics and Other Social Sciences 5. Microfoundations in the Literature of Economics, Part I: 1936 1975 6. Microfoundations in the Literature of Economics, Part II: 1975 2012 7. Crossing the Border: Microfoundations in the Other Social Sciences Part III: Dissenting Voices 8. The Dissenters, Part I: The Post Keynesians 9. The Dissenters, Part II: Mainstreamers, Austrians and Institutionalists 10. The Economic Methodologists and Microfoundations 11. Conclusion References Index.