The Romantic Economist: Imagination in Economics - Hardcover

Bronk, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521513847 ISBN 13: 9780521513845

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Since economies are dynamic processes driven by creativity, social norms, and emotions as well as rational calculation, why do economists largely study them using static equilibrium models and narrow rationalistic assumptions? Economic activity is as much a function of imagination and social sentiments as of the rational optimisation of given preferences and goods. In this book, Richard Bronk argues that economists can best model and explain these creative and social aspects of markets by using new structuring assumptions and metaphors derived from the poetry and philosophy of the Romantics. By bridging the divide between literature and science, and between Romanticism and narrow forms of Rationalism, economists can access grounding assumptions, models, and research methods suitable for comprehending the creativity and social dimensions of economic activity. This is a guide to how economists and other social scientists can broaden their analytical repertoire to encompass the vital role of sentiments, language, and imagination.

About this title

Book Description:

Since economies are dynamic processes driven by creativity, social norms, and emotions as well as rational calculation, why do economists largely study them using static equilibrium models and narrow rationalistic assumptions? This book argues that economists should look for new techniques in Romantic poetry and philosophy.

About the Author:

Richard Bronk spent the first seventeen years of his career working in the City of London, where he gained a wide expertise in international economics, business, and politics. He is now a writer and part-time academic, and a Visiting Fellow in the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0521513847
• ISBN 13: 9780521513845
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 402