The World in the Model
How Economists Work and Think

This book describes the radical shift in the study of economic science; where arguing with words was replaced by reasoning with mathematical models.

Mary S. Morgan (Author)

9780521176194, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 September 2012

442 pages, 71 b/w illus. 4 colour illus. 6 tables
25.1 x 17.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.75 kg

'Morgan's book constitutes a substantial contribution to the history of economics and a crucial one on the practice of modelling. Nearly, all the chapters of the long book are adapted from papers published in journals and books in the previous years. They can be read independently of each other, although there are great benefits in going through the whole book to appraise all the evidence for the claims made in the first chapter. This book has been, since 2012, and will be, for some years, of interest to multiple audiences.' Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

During the last two centuries, the way economic science is done has changed radically: it has become a social science based on mathematical models in place of words. This book describes and analyses that change - both historically and philosophically - using a series of case studies to illuminate the nature and the implications of these changes. It is not a technical book; it is written for the intelligent person who wants to understand how economics works from the inside out. This book will be of interest to economists and science studies scholars (historians, sociologists and philosophers of science). But it also aims at a wider readership in the public intellectual sphere, building on the current interest in all things economic and on the recent failure of the so-called economic model, which has shaped our beliefs and the world we live in.

1. Modelling as a method of enquiry
2. Model building: new recipes, ingredients and integration
3. Imagining and imaging: creating a new model world
4. Character making: ideal types, idealization and the art of caricature
5. Metaphors and analogies: choosing the world of the model
6. Questions and stories: capturing the heart of matters
7. Model experiments?
8. Simulating: taking a microscope to economics
9. Model situations, typical cases and exemplary narratives
10. From the world in the model to the model in the world.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA], Economic theory & philosophy [KCA], History of ideas [JFCX]