In this Robert Solow article entitled Science and Ideology in Economics, I read the following:

"It is sometimes said that academic economics and other social science are necessarily ideological, that their alleged "objectivity" is at best naive and more likely fraudulent. The claim to scientific objectively is a swindle; it permits ideology to masquerade as science. ... Social scientists, like every- one else, have class interests, ideological commitments, and values of all kinds. But all social science research, unlike research on the strength of materials or the structure of the hemoglobin molecule, lies very close to the content of those ideologies, interests, and val- ues. Whether the social scientists wills it or knows it, perhaps even if he fights it, his choice of research problem, the questions he asks, the questions he doesn't ask, his analytical framework, the very words he uses, are all likely to be, in some measure, a reflection of his interests, ideologies and values."

This week in Economics for Business and European Economy, I showed students two arguments in each lecture. Could you, the interested student, identify which ideologies were at play in the models we discussed? For example, economics for business students saw the perfect competition model, and the finance frontier/expansion frontier constraint model of the firm.
Which ideology is suited better by invoking the perfect competition model?

2 Responses to “Are economists ideologically conservative?”

1. Mutian

   14/09/2010 at 8:53 am

   that is interesting, which also explains why economists are more popular than those historians..

2. Stephen

   14/09/2010 at 8:46 pm

   Think so Mutian!