Uncertainty in Economics: A New Approach

by Julia Köhn

Overview

In this book the author develops a new approach to uncertainty in economics, which calls for a fundamental change in the methodology of economics. It provides a comprehensive overview and critical appraisal of the economic theory of uncertainty and shows that uncertainty was originally conceptualized both as an epistemic and an ontological problem. As a result of the economic professions’ attempt to become acknowledged as a science, the more problematic aspect of ontological uncertainty has been neglected and the subjective probability approach to uncertainty became dominant in economic theory. A careful analysis of ontological theories of uncertainty explains the blindness of modern economics to economic phenomena such as instability, slumps or excessive booms. Based on these findings the author develops a new approach that legitimizes a New Uncertainty Paradigm in economics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319553511
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	07/04/2017
Series:	Contributions to Economics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	199
File size:	565 KB

About the Author

Julia Köhn studied Business, Economics & Philosophy at Witten/Herdecke University and at the Erasmus Institute for Economics and Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is scholar of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation and member of the Think Thank “New Social Market Economy” as well as the Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York.

Table of Contents

Part I: Uncertainty in economic thought.- Uncertainty in the history of economic thought.- Truth, probability and uncertainty.- The principles of economics.- Probability and neoclassical uncertainty.- Part II: Philosophies of uncertainty.- The origin of the profit.- Uncertainty and economic instability.-The division of knowledge and unknowledge.-  The nature of economics.- Part III: Methodology of uncertainty.- Extending the boundaries of economics.- Uncertainty and fiction.- Human after all.