by From Peter Soderbaum There is a tendency in mainstream neoclassical economics to claim value-neutrality. Economics is believed to be close to natural sciences where the scholar is standing outside observing what goes on in the economy. It is believed that experiments can meaningfully be carried out to arrive at “evidence-based” results. There is a focus on markets and markets are understood in terms of supply and demand as mechanistic forces. While reference to more than one perspective can add to our understanding, any ideas about value-neutrality have to be abandoned. Values and ideology are always with us as argued by Gunnar Myrdal: “Valuations are always with us. Disinterested research there has never been and can never be. Prior to answers there must be questions. There can be no
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from Peter Soderbaum
There is a tendency in mainstream neoclassical economics to claim value-neutrality. Economics is believed to be close to natural sciences where the scholar is standing outside observing what goes on in the economy. It is believed that experiments can meaningfully be carried out to arrive at “evidence-based” results. There is a focus on markets and markets are understood in terms of supply and demand as mechanistic forces. While reference to more than one perspective can add to our understanding, any ideas about value-neutrality have to be abandoned. Values and ideology are always with us as argued by Gunnar Myrdal:
“Valuations are always with us. Disinterested research there has never been and can never be. Prior to answers there must be questions. There can be no view except from a viewpoint. In the questions raised and the viewpoint chosen, valuations are implied.
Our valuations determine our approaches to a problem, the definition of our concepts, the choice of models, the selection of observations, the presentations of our conclusions – the whole pursuit of a study from beginning to end.” (Myrdal, 1978, pp.778-779)
Rather than arguing that “our valuations determine our approaches” I would say that “our valuations influence our approaches” but otherwise I strongly support Myrdal’s arguments about the many more or less conscious choices made by the scholar. Another social scientist, Tanja von Egan-Krieger (2014) who has examined mainstream economics as well as three heterodox schools (institutional economics, feministic economics and ecological economics) refers to “the illusion of value-neutrality” in her book.
Neoclassical economists such as the leading textbook writer, N. Gregory Mankiw sometimes make a distinction between “normative” and “descriptive” statements implying that the latter can be neutral in value terms (2011, p.32). But even descriptive statements are part of some viewpoint or worldview where choices about what to describe have been made. read more