Friday, March 25 12:30-2:00 (lunch at 12:00)
Ihsan Ercan Sadi
Examining the Authority of the Mainstream:
A Sociological Approach to Knowledge
Production Processes in Economics
In this paper, I critically assess the use of game theory for economic historical analysis by scrutinizing knowledge production processes and the shifting of authority in economics. I argue that one can understand the growing literature that utilizes game theoretical approaches in economic history as a product of deliberate efforts to both maintain and reproduce the boundaries and internal hierarchies in economics. In the first section, I examine the institutionalization of boundary-drawing processes within the economics discipline by tracing the lines between neoclassical, original institutional, and neoinstitutional economics, while trying to locate game theoretical approaches to economic history analysis into this picture. I place special emphasis on their comprehensions of time, uncertainty and power. In the second section, I address the relationships between publishing and employment patterns through an examination of the fields of specialization within the discipline. I then move to an analysis of the professional successes of 24 selected prominent economic historians who utilize game theory in their field of research. In this regard, I provide a brief account on their academic backgrounds and professional locations and affiliations. Lastly, I present figures that show their publishing histories in both mainstream and heterodox journals in a comparative perspective.