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Performativity: Saving Austin from MacKenzie
Abstract
The new economic sociology claims to have adopted the notion of performativity from J.L Austin, has put it in new uses, and has given it new meanings. This is now spreading and has created another vogue term in the social and human sciences. The term is taken to cover all sorts of aspects in the ways in which the use of social scientific theories have consequences for the social world. The paper argues that the expansive use of ‘performativity’ obscures the Austinian idea and thereby impoverishes the conceptual resources available for analyzing the nuances in the complex theory/world connections. Importantly, it blurs the difference between constitutive and causal relationships, both of which actually are involved. Instead of economics performs the economy as the sociologists say, it would make more sense to say, the economy performs economics – but even this would be undermotivated.
... Callon, 1998;MacKenzie, 2006;, arguing that it obscures the authentic meanings of performativity in Austin's analysis of speech acts. 11 According to Mäki (2013), the uniqueness of Austinean performativity lies in its constitutive property. Therefore if, for example, economic models are to be performative, it is imperative to show that they constitute the economic object to which they refer (Peled, 2019, p. 3). ...
... Therefore if, for example, economic models are to be performative, it is imperative to show that they constitute the economic object to which they refer (Peled, 2019, p. 3). Thus, Mäki (2013) observed that the definition of the illocutionary act rests on a constitutive relation, whereas the perlocutionary act relies on a causal relation. ...
... Although I agree with the above-mentioned distinction made by Mäki (2013), it should be noted that an illocutionary act is not necessarily constitutive. For example, if a new economic model emerges from a slight modification of the previous version, then it does not constitute the new phenomenon that it purports to represent; it simply includes a new status function. ...
Although the philosophical literature on social institutions has been insightful for social scientific studies, the application of its core concepts, such as collective intentionality, to real institutional dynamics remains challenging. One factor contributing to this situation is insufficient work that identifies collectively accepted social norms and shows how they constitute social institutions. Relying on the perspectives of John Searle and Raimo Tuomela, this study integrates recent analyses of the concept of performativity with discourse analysis. It presents an analytic framework, drawing on the concept of nominalization, to identify collectively accepted social norms that performatively constitute social institutions. Finally, it illustrates the identification of collectively accepted ‘globalization’ that performatively constitutes and shapes economic institutions engaged in corporate financial reporting. This study contributes to closing the gap between philosophical analyses of social institutions and social scientific studies by highlighting the performance of nominalized collectively accepted social norms.
... We argue that there is an additional dimension along which epidemiological models can be successful, namely in influencing the course of an epidemic. Our argument draws on the concept of 'performativity', which economic sociologists and philosophers of economics have used to highlight the fact that economic models may not only represent parts of the economy, but can also influence the behaviours of the economic systems modelled (Callon 1998;MacKenzie 2006;Guala 2007;Mäki 2013;Boldyrev and Ushakov 2016). This notion has a long history in philosophy of science (see Buck 1963), economics, and the social sciences (see Henshel 1993), where it is often referred to as 'reflexive prediction' (Buck 1963;Henshel 1993). 1 Predictions (or 'prophecies') can be 'self-fulfilling' or 'self-defeating', understood broadly to mean that the dissemination of the prediction is causally relevant in either bringing about the event predicted or in preventing it from occurring (Buck 1963). ...
... This notion has a long history in philosophy of science (see Buck 1963), economics, and the social sciences (see Henshel 1993), where it is often referred to as 'reflexive prediction' (Buck 1963;Henshel 1993). 1 Predictions (or 'prophecies') can be 'self-fulfilling' or 'self-defeating', understood broadly to mean that the dissemination of the prediction is causally relevant in either bringing about the event predicted or in preventing it from occurring (Buck 1963). We similarly understand the notion of performativity in a broad way; models perform by changing important properties of the phenomena they are representing (see Mäki 2013). 2 Whereas earlier accounts tended to focus on the negative aspects of this phenomenon (particularly the difficulties it poses for accurate prediction), contemporary work on performativity also emphasises potential positive aspects, particularly how an understanding of performativity can allow us to intervene constructively in the economy (Guala 2007). ...
Models not only represent but may also influence their targets in important ways. While models’ abilities to influence outcomes has been studied in the context of economic models, often under the label ‘performativity’, we argue that this phenomenon also pertains to epidemiological models, such as those used for forecasting the trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic. After identifying three ways in which a model by the Covid-19 Response Team at Imperial College London (Ferguson et al. 2020) may have influenced scientific advice, policy, and individual responses, we consider the implications of epidemiological models’ performative capacities. We argue, first, that performativity may impair models’ ability to successfully predict the course of an epidemic; but second, that it may provide an additional sense in which these models can be successful, namely by changing the course of an epidemic.
... The approach of performativity theory has been criticized in several areas: for example, the ambiguity of the concept of performativity (Fine, 2003;Mäki, 2013). Some authors consider that the effectiveness of economic science as a performative technique may after all be quite limited since some features of humans (those of a psychological or sociological nature, for example) are undervalued in the process of learning and applying theories (Mäki, 2013). ...
... The approach of performativity theory has been criticized in several areas: for example, the ambiguity of the concept of performativity (Fine, 2003;Mäki, 2013). Some authors consider that the effectiveness of economic science as a performative technique may after all be quite limited since some features of humans (those of a psychological or sociological nature, for example) are undervalued in the process of learning and applying theories (Mäki, 2013). Despite the assumptions of economic theories, market agents are influenced in their decisions by the social norms and values that prevail in the society to which they belong (Santos and Rodrigues, 2009). ...
The beliefs and strategies to be mobilized by individuals who are about to start their activity as investors in financial markets is an issue scarcely explored in the field of the sociology of finance. In this paper we present new evidence about the opinions of future investors recurring to a survey administered to 177 master’s students. Our results highlight the structural incoherence in the values adopted by future investors and the centrality of these social actors’ beliefs in the construction of the prevailing practices in financial markets.
... We argue that there is an additional dimension along which epidemiological models can be successful, namely in influencing the course of an epidemic. Our argument draws on the concept of "performativity", which economic sociologists and philosophers of economics have used to describe the phenomenon that economic models may not only represent parts of the economy, but can also influence the behaviours of the economic systems modelled (Callon 1998;MacKenzie 2006;Guala 2007;Mäki 2013;Boldyrev and Ushakov 2016). We understand the notion of performativity in a broad way; models perform by changing important properties of the phenomena they are representing (cf. ...
... We understand the notion of performativity in a broad way; models perform by changing important properties of the phenomena they are representing (cf. Mäki 2013). 1 This notion has a long history in philosophy 1 Mäki himself is critical of attempts to characterize this type of phenomenon in the context of economic modelling in terms of Austin's notion of performativity, arguing that Austin's notion is concerned with acts being constituted by certain utterances. By contrast, according to Mäki, economic theorizing may have causal consequences for economic activity without being constitutive of it. ...
Models may not only represent, but also influence their targets in important ways. While models' ability to influence outcomes has been studied in relation to economic models, often under the label "performativity", we argue that this phenomenon also pertains to epidemiological models, such as those used for forecasting the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic. After identifying three ways in which a model by the COVID-19 Response Team at Imperial College London (Ferguson et al. 2020) may have influenced scientific advice, policy, and individual responses, we consider the implications of epidemiological models' performative capacities. We argue, first, that performativity may impair models' ability to successfully predict the course of an epidemic; and second, that it provides an additional respect in which these models can be successful, namely by changing the course of an epidemic.
... A abordagem da performatividade à análise dos mercados tem sido objecto de diversas críticas. Por exemplo, tem sido salientada a ambiguidade inscrita no próprio conceito de performatividade (Fine, 2003;Mäki, 2013). Alguns autores consideram que a eficácia da Ciência Económica enquanto técnica performativa acaba por ser limitada uma vez que se ignora o factor humano na aprendizagem e na aplicação das teorias (Mäki, 2013). ...
... Por exemplo, tem sido salientada a ambiguidade inscrita no próprio conceito de performatividade (Fine, 2003;Mäki, 2013). Alguns autores consideram que a eficácia da Ciência Económica enquanto técnica performativa acaba por ser limitada uma vez que se ignora o factor humano na aprendizagem e na aplicação das teorias (Mäki, 2013). Apesar do postulado pelas teorias económicas, os agentes de mercado não podem deixar de incorporar nas suas decisões os conceitos morais, as normas e os valores vigentes na sociedade em que se integram (Santos e Rodrigues, 2009). ...
In the field of the Sociology of Finance, the beliefs and perceptions of individuals about to begin investing in financial markets has not been an issue thoroughly explored in the literature. In this article, we present new evidence about the opinions of future investors taken from a survey of 177 university students from 2014-2016. The results suggest that individuals have inconsistent perceptions about the financial markets; in addition, there is conflict between the abstract need for regulation and the subjective consequences arising from the application of regulatory practices.
... The critics argue that performativity simply recapitulates the professional ideology of economists by assuming that markets confirm economic theory; furthermore, in many empirical cases, markets do not function in practice as economic theory foresees (see e.g. Miller 2002;Aspers 2005;Mäki 2013). On a more positive note, there is already evidence that energy social research poses unique strengths in addressing some of these critical issues in the social studies of markets (e.g. ...
... Energy market scholar Daniel Breslau (2013, p. 830) summarises three main lines of attack. First, to many, the performativity approach seems to assume a technocratic narrative: markets will simply materialize rather linearly from economic theory (Mäki 2013;Pollock & Williams 2015). Second, by assuming that economists are market designers and that markets confirm economic theory, performativity recapitulates the professional ideology of economists themselves (Miller 2002;Aspers 2005). ...
For many years, energy market design has held great promises as a solution to current energy issues; ranging from increasing international trade to emissions reduction, the securing of future electricity capacity, and increasing flexibility amid growing intermittent renewable energy resources. The emerging economic understandings of the energy infrastructure motivate conceptual and methodological innovations in the social sciences, which this paper pursues. Its first part describes recent advances in social studies of markets, which seek greater appreciation of the role of economics in the formation of markets via economic theories, instruments, and many other means. The second part focuses on emerging studies which draw on these approaches to examine energy systems including their markets, liberalisation, and sustainability. The essay brings together social studies of markets with energy and opens up important topics for understanding current energy transitions. These include how financial systems can be treated as key components of the socio-technical energy system in transition; and conversely, how the case of energy adds to the theories of social studies of markets and economics by highlighting manifold interdependencies between economics, engineering problems, existing infrastructures, and political contentions when market-based energy is at stake.
... Little more is required by a scientific realism about economics and other social sciences. (For more detailed discussions of these concepts and arguments, see Mäki 2002Mäki , 2005Mäki , 2008Mäki , 2012Mäki , 2013 The argument can be formulated as the claim that even if the money universal were fully dependent on the collective beliefs by social agents, this would not imply a denial of scientific realism: money is not constitutively dependent on economic and other social scientific theories and inquiries. In short, regardless of whether or not some generic notion of realism applies to money, scientific realism has no trouble with it: money is in an appropriate sense science-independent. ...
... This practice conflates causal and constitutive connections, and by broadening the extension of 'performativity' far beyond its Austinian connotations, it wastes a fairly well understood concept, replacing it with an obscure one. For detailed arguments, seeMäki 2013. ...
The suggestions outlined here include the following. Money is a bundle of institutionally sustained causal powers. Money is an institutional universal instantiated in generic currencies and particular money tokens. John Searle’s account of institutional facts is not helpful for understanding the nature of money as an institution (while it may help to illuminate aspects of the nature of currencies and money particulars). The money universal is not a social convention in David Lewis’s sense (while currencies and money particulars are characterized by high degrees of conventionality). The existence of the money universal is dependent on a larger institutional structure and cannot be understood in terms of collective belief or acceptance or agreement separately focusing on money. These claims have important implications for realism about money.
... Much like Austin's performatives, scientific models can also sometimes be used to do something; not only to represent and describe but to change their targets in important ways. Sociologists and philosophers of science have discussed this phenomenon, especially regarding models in economics and finance (Callon 1998;MacKenzie 2006a, b;Guala 2007;Mäki 2013;Boldyrev and Ushakov 2016), and, more recently, regarding epidemiological models (van Basshuysen et al. 2021;Winsberg and Harvard 2022). Borrowing from Austin, many have called models' capacity to bring about or change their targets "performativity". 1 This paper argues that Austin's analysis of performatives can also inform the evaluation of models. ...
Like Austin’s “performatives”, some models are used not merely to represent, but also to change their targets in various ways. This paper argues that Austin’s analysis can inform model evaluation: if models are evaluated with respect to their adequacy-for-purpose (Parker 2020), and if performativity can in some cases be regarded as a model purpose (a proposition that is defended, using mechanism design as an example), it follows that these models can be evaluated with respect to their “felicity”, i.e. whether their use has achieved this purpose. Finally, I respond to epistemic and ethical concerns that might block this conclusion.
... This last approach has proved particularly fertile in scholarship on the construction of markets, including energy markets (Silvast, 2017). However, a series of recent papers has taken a more critical stance towards the new paradigm, pointing to conceptual flaws (Mäki, 2013), theoretical shortcuts (Miller, 2002) and empirical problems (Brisset, 2016). While some of the critiques arguably only address a "strippeddown version" of the performativity thesis, which holds that markets would materialize more or less directly from economic theory (Silvast, 2017), others point to more substantial deficiencies. ...
Ongoing debates about the need to deeply transform energy systems worldwide have spurred renewed scholarly interest in the role of future-visions and foreknowledge in energy policy. Forecasts and scenarios are in fact ubiquitous in energy debates: commonly calculated using energy models, they are employed by governments, administrations and civil society actors to identify problems, choose between potential solutions, and justify specific forms of political intervention. This article contributes to these debates through a historic study of foreknowledge-making – modelling, forecasting, and scenario-building – and its relationship to the structuring of ‘energy policy’ as an autonomous policy domain in France and Germany. It brings together two strands of literature: work in the anthropology of politics on ‘policy assemblages’, and STS research on the ‘performative’ effects of foreknowledge. The main argument is that new ways of assembling energy systems in energy modelling, and of bringing together policy networks in scenario-building and forecasting exercises, can contribute to policy change. To analyse the conditions under which such change occurs, the article focuses on two periods: the making of national energy policies as ‘energy supply policies’ in the post-war decades; and challenges to dominant approaches to energy policy and energy modelling in the 1970s and 1980s. It concludes by arguing that further research should not only focus on the effects of foreknowledge on expectations and beliefs (‘discursive performativity’), but also take into account how new models ‘equip’ political, administrative and market actors (‘material performativity’), and how forecasting practices recompose and shape wider policy worlds (‘social performativity’).
... Readers interested in performativity discussions of modelling are advised to consult MacKenzie (2006), who presents one of the more influential performativity accounts related to modelling. See also Mäki's (2013) compelling critique and cf. Peled (2020) for a response. ...
Financial modelling is an essential tool for studying the possibility of financial transactions. This paper argues that financial models are conventional tools widely used in formulating and establishing possibility claims about a prospective investment transaction, from a set of governing possibility assumptions. What is distinctive about financial models is that they articulate how a transaction possibly could occur in a non-actual investment scenario given a limited base of possibility conditions assumed in the model. For this reason, it is argued that the epistemic contribution of financial models is that of enabling the model users to envision exactly how a prospective investment could be achieved in various ways through a detailed understanding of the available transaction mechanisms. Thus, financial models provide information about the possibility of an investment scenario by showing how a specific transaction mechanism could result from a small set of initial possibility conditions assumed in the model.
... So far, the question is still debated: Does the Callonian approach to performativity match Austin's original views? Uskali Mäki (2013), for instance, considers that the Callonian use is inappropriate. Following Austin's definition, a performative utterance is a speech act that is constitutive in nature: If I declare that the bonds of marriage unite two people, my speech is constitutive of the specific conventional state that I produce. ...
... B. bereits beiButler (1991), von der engen Definition Austins gelöst, nach der der performative Effekt direkt eintreten muss. Während einige diese Entwicklung kritisch sehen(Mäki 2013), wird die konzeptuelle Erweiterung von anderen begrüßt(Braun 2016, S. 259) ...
Die Governance der Liquidität der Finanzmärkte hat sich in den letzten Jahren stark verändert. Während vor der globalen Finanzkrise Liquidität immer stärker von privaten Akteuren generiert worden war, wird staatlichen Institutionen und insbesondere den Zentralbanken inzwischen wieder eine wichtige Rolle zugesprochen. Es ist eine scheinbar paradoxe Entwicklung zu konstatieren, bei der private Akteure eine immer bedeutendere Rolle in der Generierung von Liquidität erhalten und staatliche Institutionen immer wichtiger hinsichtlich der Absicherung dieser Liquiditätsgenerierung werden. Der Beitrag hinterfragt die Dichotomie von Finanzmarkt und Staat und argumentiert, dass der Staat stets eine zentrale Stellung in der Governance der Finanzmarktliquidität innehatte, wenn diese auch während und nach der globalen Finanzkrise deutlich offensiver geworden ist. Erstens setzt Politik den politischen und rechtlichen Rahmen, in dem sich der „freie Markt“ entfalten kann. Zweitens wäre die finanzmarktinterne Verbriefung von Wertpapieren und insbesondere von Hypotheken ohne staatliches Engagement im großen Stil nicht möglich gewesen. Und drittens basiert auch das privat organisierte Finanzsystem letztlich auf staatlichen Sicherheiten, vor allem den Staatsanleihen, ohne die es nicht funktionieren könnte. Die Gewährleistung von Liquidität und die Stabilität der Finanzmärkte ist folglich kein Problem, das sich außerhalb des Staates abspielen würde. Vielmehr ist die Governance der Finanzmärkte eine genuin politische Frage. Aufbauend auf der Performativitätstheorie und der Internationalen Politischen Ökonomie argumentiert der Beitrag, dass es für eine Analyse der Governance der Liquidität im globalen Finanzsystem notwendig ist, die Ko-Konstitution von Finanzakteur und Finanzsystem und damit die soziale, politische und strukturelle Dimension der Liquiditätsgenerierung auf den Finanzmärkten zu untersuchen.
... B. bereits beiButler (1991), von der engen Definition Austins gelöst, nach der der performative Effekt direkt eintreten muss. Während einige diese Entwicklung kritisch sehen(Mäki 2013), wird die konzeptuelle Erweiterung von anderen begrüßt(Braun 2016, S. 259) ...
Since the global financial crisis, there has been a shift in the governance of market liquidity. While private actors are playing an increasing role in liquidity generation, state institutions are becoming more and more important with respect to liquidity protection. The article questions the dichotomy between states and financial markets and argues that although there are considerable changes, the state has always played a central role in the governance of liquidity. It sets a legal framework, strongly supports asset securitization, and provides securities, especially in the form of state bonds, which constitute one of the very conditions for the financial system to function.
... Por fim, Mäki (2013) faz uma crítica categórica à teoria de performatividade. Para ele, literalmente falando, as teorias econômicas não moldam a economia, tampouco a investigam. ...
In economics, the “performativity thesis” means making or moulding the world more than just describing it. This paper deals with practices and claims by economic theorists, using the performativity thesis. Economists usually build models trying to catch reality but, in the same effort, they fashion individuals’ and institutions’ behavior (and sometimes they are deeply affected). Institutions and individuals’ behavior consistently interact by leaning on theories. Our contribution to this debate is to point out effects flowing reversely, from social structures to economic theory.
... Guala deals primarily with the status of the performativity concept in current methodological debates on economics and with a critique of MacKenzie and Callon that has emerged from the philosophy of economics (Mäki 2013 ). Taking Austin's ideas as a point of departure, he seeks to expand the performative speech act theory by considering speech acts as coordinating devices (analogous to MacKenzie's analyses of fi nancial models, see Millo and MacKenzie 2009 ;MacKenzie 2010 ). ...
The introduction to the volume "Enacting Dismal Science: New Perspectives on the Performativity of Economics" (2016) observes the drift towards a new understanding of the performativity concept. It seems that the search for a general proof that the one way-link “theory - reality” exists (that was characteristic for the previous research) was recognized to be futile. Now, the performativity concept moved from the theoretical debate about the link between abstract theories and economic reality towards empirical studies about how this link works in various applied fields. There was a drift towards investigations of “performative practices”. In our overview (which remains necessarily selective), we explicitly name the novelties recently brought about by the performativity program, the main critical arguments against performativity, and the perspectives opening up in this volume and beyond. Given the importance of the topic and the insightful debates over performativity so far, it is now high time to take stock.
... Les effets ne sont pas à chaque fois performés par le locuteur. D'autres types d'activités sont nécessaires comme s'informer,apprendre, appliquer, argumenter, implémenter, prédire, persuader, mobiliser des ressources(Mäki, 2013). Ainsi, la performation, et non plus la performativité qui sous-tend à un état (de Vaujany, 2015) est un processus qui passe d'abord par l'interaction entre deux parties et l'interprétation de ce qui les entourent (le champ), plutôt que par le passage direct à la théorie.DansFigure 24, l'usage précède la théorie, et l'acte suit bien l'énoncé.Source : auteurDans cette section, j'ai illustré la dynamique conjointe des logiques institutionnelles avec un enracinement micro. ...
Cette thèse propose d'étudier les changements de modes d’interprétation des professionnels de santé en France depuis ces dernières années. Plusieurs travaux en théorie des organisations expliquent « le changement » compte tenu des évolutions du contexte dans lequel ils s'inscrivent (Lounsbury & Crumley, 2007). Récemment, le concept de logiques institutionnelles séparant les individus selon leurs valeurs en plusieurs catégories (Friedland & Alford, 1991; Lounsbury, 2002; Thornton, Ocasio, & Lounsbury, 2012), offre une grille de lecture novatrice permettant de comprendre l'agencement des individus au cours du temps. Le modèle présenté par les auteurs rend compte à la fois du pouvoir des discours, mais insiste aussi sur l’encastrement dans la pratiques de leurs actions, des usages et des objets. Pourtant, alors que les analyses s'instruisent des modes discursifs des acteurs, peu de travaux se concentrent sur le rôle de la matérialité. Plusieurs observations exploratoires démontrent pourtant que les individus emploient des objets distincts selon la logique à laquelle ils appartiennent (ex: Jones, Boxenbaum, & Anthony, 2013; Raviola et Norbäck, 2013).
L'objectif est dans un premier temps de rendre compte des différences matérielles des logiques institutionnelles au sein d'un champ, puis, dans un second temps de comprendre les conséquences induites par l'usage de ces objets. L’étude des pratiques sociomaterielles dans la profession médicale offrent plusieurs contributions:
L’ancrage dans la théorie du changement institutionnel couplée à la mobilisation de la sociomatérialité pour étudier l’aspect micro des logiques institutionnelles est une contribution théorique en soi. L’enseignement à tirer de cette conceptualisation est la prise en compte des interactions sociales des individus à plusieurs niveaux. En premier lieu, il clarifie entre autres les fondations micro de la dynamique conjointe des logiques institutionnelles (McPherson & Sauder, 2013). En second lieu, l’existence de deux logiques conflictuelles contenant des systèmes de croyances communs peut être associée à une nouvelle forme de structure hybride complexe du champ (Battilana & Dorado, 2010; Jay, 2013; Pache & Santos, 2013).
D'un point de vue empirique, cette thèse souligne l’évolution des modes cognitifs des professionnels de santé au sein du contexte français. Jusqu’à présent les analyses de champ s'attardent sur des pays anglo-saxons. Par ailleurs, le phénomène d’indépendance fait aussi écho à d’autres travaux empiriques. Les chercheurs reportent l’apparition de logiques similaires dans d’autres contextes comme celui de la finance (Dorado, 2010) ou de la vente (Tracey et al., 2011).
This special issue addresses a series of post-2008 financial developments by mobilising the concept of the tale, understood as a discursive artefact composed of a meaningful story or script that serves to separate good from evil, make sense of historical situations, stimulate action, and prefigure scenarios. Unlike standard workplace narratives, which are useful for practical decision-making, tales have strong collective and political connotations. As such, they assume two distinct forms: tales of ‘experiment,’ stemming from innovative projects that seek to transform the financial system from within, and tales of ‘defiance,’ which deal with the more ample changes that horizontal and disobedient practices prefigure. Several analytical coordinates are proposed in order to capture the semiotic and pragmatic natures of the tale. Regarding semiotics, tales involve not only themes and motifs but also polysemic metaphors and what are here defined as processes of characterisation, through which persons or institutions are positioned as characters and assume specific roles within a story. As for the pragmatic dimension, tales mobilise people toward specific functions and address audiences while also relying on material infrastructure to embed some of the content they convey.
Technological innovation is a process that involves the intertwining of social, cognitive, and material elements. The relationship among these features is non-linear, complex, and possesses the ability to transform as well as inform the configuration of markets, tools, users, and social environments. The concept of performativity can be used to explain this phenomenon. This paper identifies the performative elements present in the context of technological innovation and maps the social factors and the use of cognitive features in the innovation process. This identification explicitly addresses the entanglement of the material and social influences in the process, defines the agency of technological change, and focuses on the impact the nature of a technology has on the configuration of a market. A conceptual model of performativity in the innovation process is proposed.
There is an emerging consensus among scholars that a unified definition of social entrepreneurship would empower better research and legitimize the entire field. In spite of these benefits, none of the four definitions identified here is clearly superior to the others. Moreover, a unified definition might be unattainable and it would arguably also have negative side effects that have been so far overlooked—namely, managerial issues for social entrepreneurs, efficiency issues for the economic system, theoretical issues for scholars, as well as ethical issues at large. Finally, this chapter argues that the alleged benefits of a unified definition might be obtained with two definitions or more.
The financial sector could play a more significant and transformative role in supporting the energy transition. Portraying techno-economic models, upon which the sector depends for the support of its investment decisions, as performative or self-fulfilling agents which serve only to entrench the hegemony of the present incumbents, undermines the potential for using these approaches to accelerate the energy transition. In this article, we outline the role of capital markets in the energy transition and show how techno-economic modelling has attracted a growing interest from authors within the renewable energy sector. We summarise the concerns of social scientists about economic modelling, neatly captured by its depiction as a calculative agency intent on its self-replication. We argue that there is a need to align the two perspectives, especially as a means of strengthening the support of the financial sector for the energy transition, and suggest several ways in which this alignment could be achieved. Important research questions include further exploration of the recursive and performative relationship between economic models and the economy, the inclusion of externalities in modelling studies, the use of economic models as agents of change rather than recalcitrance, and finally strengthening capital markets in the Global South.
This article discusses central bank forward guidance as a performative (Austin) and conative (Jakobson) practice – hence, as a form of audience-centred communication that intends to transform their behaviour when deployed by a narrator who is simultaneously also a character in the story. Taking the European Central Bank (ECB) as its primary example, the article conveys how the double role of narrator and character assumed by this institution renders it more permeable to reactions from the markets and the public.
The main focus of this thesis is a critique of the „Performativity of Economics“ debate concerning certain theoretical issues. The deficit of a yet missing, action-based analysis and explanation is addressed in particular.
As a solution to this problem, this paper proposes a connection to the mechanism approach, based in explanatory sociology. Following merits are assumed: Firstly, the aforementioned program offers an explicitly action-based approach. Secondly, the identification of the underlying social mechanisms allows the decryption of ongoing social dynamics and processes. Thirdly, different forms of the social phenomenon in question (performativity of economics) can be translated into different middle-range theories. The „self-fulfilling theory“ as a certain type of „self-fulfilling prophecy“ is regarded as an explanatory social mechanism, both linking the explanation with its present object and providing an explanatory instrument – while being under scrutiny itself.
The action-based explanation of a specific form of performativity finds empirical demonstration in the case example of the rise and spread of shareholder value and the underlying agency theory. It is shown that mechanism-based explanations can provide fruitful theoretical insights for the debate in general. The application of the self-fulfilling theory as a social mechanism seems more controversial, but can still offer a valuable theoretical bridge, allowing a more nuanced view on the relationship between strong types of performativity and self-fulfilling prophecies.
In this thesis I argue that one way scientific descriptions can become self-fulfilling is by promoting social norms among the people they are disseminated to. Identifying this mechanism will enable us to change unwanted social implications caused by it. To make the argument, I rely on the definition of social norms given by Bicchieri [2006] in The Grammar of Society and use the case of microeconomics as it is presented in university textbooks. Thus, the aim of the thesis is to argue that one way microeconomics can be self-fulfilling is by promoting a social norm of self-interest - and often narrow self-interest - via its textbooks and university teaching practices. To do this, I first use the current empirical findings to argue that the dissemination of the rationality assumption as it is presented in microeconomics textbooks can make microeconomics self-fulfilling. Second, I conduct a historical analysis to show that the claims that greed and self-interest are beneficial have been a part of modern economics from its beginning and still is today. I then discuss why the rationality assumption is a part of contemporary microeconomics and analyse how it is presented in standard textbook models today. Here, we see that even though some of the models can account for other-regarding preferences, the textbooks do not mention this fact. Instead, they present the rationality assumption as focusing on self-interested preferences only, and justify it as being both descriptively plausible and normatively desirable. Finally, I use the above analyses to argue that microeconomics textbooks and teaching practices can change people’s behaviour by making them follow a social norm of self-interest in economic situations. I end the thesis by presenting the results of an empirical study designed to test this argument.
In my paper, I examine the role that models play, and the relation between models and data, in financial systems, in particular in stock markets. I discuss several dangerous liaisons between models and data both from a theoretical and a practical viewpoint, and I consider their effects on the behaviour of the financial systems and their actors. I will examine two issues in particular. First, these liaisons defy the way traditional philosophy of science accounts for models and the relation between models and data, as stock markets exhibit several dynamics and features that do not fit them. For instance, they challenge the ontological issue about models (the debate about the fictional character of models), or the way models and phenomena are connected, and consequently undermine classical taxonomies as ‘models of data’, ‘models of phenomena’, ‘models of theory’. Second, these relations and liaisons open the way to possible exploitations and manipulation of stock market’s dynamics by means of appropriate use of models and data, including ‘reverse finance’, which should be closely analysed in order to contribute to better functioning and serving of the financial systems.
Dieser Beitrag diskutiert drei Ansätze, wie die gesellschaftliche Wirkmacht ökonomischen Wissens analysiert werden kann. Im ersten Teil steht die wirtschaftssoziologische Diskussion zur Wirkmacht (verstanden als Performativität) ökonomischer Modelle im Fokus, wie sie Michel Callon und Donald MacKenzie vorgelegt haben. Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit der Kritik Philip Mirowskis an der Performativitätsdiskussion und seinem Ansatz, die Wirkmacht der Ökonom*innen und ihrer Netzwerke zu untersuchen. Eine dritte Perspektive diskutiert entlang der Arbeiten von Michel Foucault einerseits die Bedingungen der Möglichkeit von Diskursen wie demjenigen der Wirtschaftswissenschaften und andererseits die Rolle der politischen Ökonomie für Regierungstechniken. In diesem Beitrag verfolgen wir die These, dass die gesellschaftliche Wirkmacht ökonomischen Wissens auf drei Ebenen adressierbar ist, nämlich auf Ebene der wissenschaftlichen Aussagen und Modelle, der Protagonist*innen und des Diskurses.
This paper aims to solve a fundamental critique of the research project of the performativity of economics. The critique by philosopher Uskali Mäki strikes the concept of performativity in a weak spot – its utilization of the notion of constitution, drawn from John Austin’s philosophy of language. Accepting Mäki’s critique implies a deterioration of performativity to a marginal field in economics studies, the opposite of the substantial stance it enjoys today. Using Brian Epstein’s unique account of constitution’s role in the ontology of social groups, this paper suggests an original solution to the critique that restores the legitimacy and importance of using constitution as part of performativity research. Furthermore, it offers a novel ontologically nuanced definition of performativity.
In this paper, we propose to approach performativity and processuality as mindsets. We suggest that researchers interested by or pursuing performative studies should recognize more explicitly the inherent processuality of performativity. After offering broad overviews on performativity and process thinking, we highlight that both mindsets rest on a similar view of reality as processual, and both share a strong commitment to qualitative empirical work. In spite of the differences that exist between the two mindsets-such as their treatment of agency, the place of socio-materiality and their approach to continuity and change-we contend that acknowledging and engaging more directly with processuality benefits performative studies, as it helps these studies to deal with some of the challenges they often face. In doing so, performative studies could refine their analyses of managerial and organizational phenomena and would also increase their contribution to our field.
Zusammenfassung
Ziel des Beitrags ist eine systematisch-kritische Auswertung der einschlägigen sozialwissenschaftlichen Studien über Zentralbanken und Geldpolitik. Ausgangspunkt sind maßgebliche Entwicklungen moderner Geldpolitik in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Zentralbanken und die Makroökonomik zeichnen sie mit Stichworten wie politische Unabhängigkeit, Preisniveaustabilisierung und Transparenz aus und werten sie als Erfolg. Die sozialwissenschaftliche Erforschung dieser Phänomene, die diesem Fortschrittsnarrativ oftmals konfligiert, lässt sich in drei Perspektiven untergliedern: institutionalistische, kommunikationsanalytische und performativitätstheoretische Ansätze. Den Zusammenhang zwischen makroökonomischem Wissen und geldpolitischem Steuerungswissen verhandeln wir als tendenziellen Fluchtpunkt dieser Arbeiten. Als Desiderat der Forschung benennen wir eine präzisere Analyse der Transformation spezifischer Elemente akademisch-makroökonomischen Wissens zur Zentralbankpraxis.
This special issue groups a set of contributions that together question and extend the boundaries of strategy research by examining strategy work as a performative pursuit. In this introduction, we position the special issue papers within the broader context of performativity studies in organization and management theory. To do so, we ground the analysis of the performativity of strategy in the recent developments of strategy-as-practice research, clarify the ambitions of a performative turn in the study of strategy, introduce the plurality of performativity meanings and uses in prior research and specify the conceptualizations of performativity mobilized in the seven contributions that form this special issue. Taking stock of their rich insights, and reflecting on our editing of this special issue, we then identify key challenges underlying the constitution of the body of studies on the performativity of strategy, and propose three avenues of research that together sketch a research agenda for advancing the study of strategy as a performative endeavour.
Once lively debates concerning the philosophical significance of self-fulfilling science, or the causal contribution of science to bringing about the states of affairs it depicts, lapsed in the 1970s. Recent claims concerning the influence of economic theory on the behavior it predicts or explains seem poised to revitalize discussion, yet lack of clarity abounds concerning the key features of such cases and the philosophical issues to which they might be relevant. In this paper, I examine a paradigmatic case of self-fulfilling science, clarify its key features, and critically discuss two existing approaches to understanding such phenomena. Ultimately, I suggest a novel approach more well-suited to analyzing such cases and exploring their philosophical significance.
The history of economics has often been described as the “history of economic thought.” In this essay, I explore an alternative perspective that builds on the French tradition of historical epistemology and treats economics as a social practice. I argue that a practice-based view provides a more philosophically robust conception of historiography and a richer field of investigation for historians of economics.
In the past 30 years, collective intentionality, group agency and social institutions have established themselves as central topics within analytic philosophy. The many wide-ranging and penetrating papers and books that Raimo Tuomela has published on these topics have made a significant contribution to this development. His new book Social Ontology. Collective Intentionality and Group Agents (Oxford University Press) is a welcome addition. Tuomela formulates his ideas in a more accessible way than before, which makes the book attractive also to philosophers and social scientists that are new to his work.
The nature of the data of financial systems raises several theoretical and methodological issues, which not only impact finance, but have also philosophical and methodological implications, viz. on the very notion of data. In this paper I will examine several features of financial data, especially stock markets data: these features pose serious challenges to the interpretation and employment of stock markets data, weakening the ‘myth of data’. In particular I will focus on two issues: (1) the way data are produced and shared, and (2) the way data are processed. The first raises an internal issue, while the second an external one. I will argue that the process of construction and employment of the stock markets data exemplifies how data are theoretical objects and that ‘raw data’ do not exist. Data are not light and ready-to-use objects, but have to be handled conceptually and technically very carefully and they are a kind of ‘dark matter’. Dark data, for the note.
Die bis heute andauernde weltweite Wirtschaftskrise – in Analogie zur „Great Depression“ von 1930 auch „Great Recession“ genannt –, die ihren Anfang in der Finanzkrise 2007/08 nahm, hat zu einer Welle von unterschiedlichen Kritiken geführt. Eine zentrale Kritik bezog sich darauf, dass der Ausbruch der globalen Wirtschaftskrise zumindest in ihrem dramatischen Ausmaß nur von sehr wenigen ÖkonomInnen vorhergesagt worden war (Tichy 2010). Gleichzeitig waren führende ÖkonomInnen über Jahrzehnte für die Liberalisierungen öffentlicher Leistungen und „freie Märkte“ einschließlich der Finanzmärkte eingetreten.
„Wenn Du etwas nicht in Zahlen ausdrücken kannst, hast Du keine Chance!“ Mit diesen Worten bereitete uns, zwei Arbeitssoziologen, die ein Forschungsprojekt zu nachhaltiger Flexibilisierung durchführen wollten, ein Mitarbeiter eines großen Automobilherstellers auf ein Gespräch mit Führungskräften und Managementvertretern seines Unternehmens vor. Seit einigen Jahren müsse jede Veränderung und jede Neuerung in einem sogenannten „Business Case“ vorab durchgerechnet werden. Weiche Faktoren, die sich nur schwer quantifizieren und deren Effekte sich nicht in Geldeinheiten ausdrücken ließen – wie im Übrigen die in unserem Projekt fokussierte Zufriedenheit der Beschäftigten – finden faktisch kaum Gehör.
Im Zuge der Ausdifferenzierung der neueren Wirtschaftssoziologie hat sich im Kontext der Performativitätsforschung ein Strang herausgebildet, welcher der sozialen, technologischen und diskursiven Beziehung zwischen wirtschaftswissenschaftlichem Wissen und ökonomischem Handeln nachgeht. Angestoßen wurde diese Debatte durch zwei Beiträge des französischen Wissenschaftssoziologen Michel Callon (1998a, 1998b), die im Nachgang viel Resonanz erfahren haben.
The text contributes to the largely uncharted terrain of performativity and macroeconomics. What are the gains and limitations of the performativity perspective when the field of interest is not a single market or trading technique, but a vast, complex and occasionally diffuse field, consisting of various macroeconomic forces as well as competing political players? First, we analyze how the complex and multilayered narratives of Keynes’s General Theory were transformed into the epochal IS–LM model and how this mathematically formalized and visually appealing tool served as an organizing cognitive landscape for the emerging field of (Keynesian) macroeconomics. In an ensuing case study, we reconstruct key aspects of the diffusion of this ‘IS-LMised’ version of Keynes’s General Theory into policy circles in West Germany in the 1960s.
Economic sociologists have been criticized for using the term ‘performativity’ in a way that seems unfaithful to Austin’s notion. In this paper, I defend this usage against Uskali Mäki’s challenge, in particular, his claim that economic theories cannot constitute illocutionary acts. To counter this claim, I argue that performative speech acts play primarily a coordinating role by manipulating agents’ beliefs, and this is the same role that theories like the Black–Scholes model of option pricing play in financial markets, if MacKenzie’s historical reconstruction is right.
If performativity theory simply repeats that economists design markets, much of its radicalism is lost. Instead, researchers must consider the mechanisms by which economisation transforms social arrangements. This chapter develops the argument that economic description constitutes aspects of the social as economic. Following Austin and Butler, I argue that such description has a performative force, and is therefore politically and ethically charged. I suggest that an understanding of economic description as performative explain show economics can at once constitute and claim authority over an object. The chapter explores how economic description transforms social relations. It connects performativity theory to existing critiques of economic relations, and suggests that performativity research can develop ethically rich narratives without losing theoretical or empirical rigour. Finally, it urges performativity research to rediscover its radicalism in its ability to unseat the ‘meta physical presumptions’ of economics.
Much of the philosophical debate about scientific models has focused on their representational function. Beginning with a discussion of the problem of scientific representation in general (as explored by Nelson Goodman, Bas van Fraassen, and others) this chapter discusses two specific proposals of how model-based representation comes about: first, R.I.G. Hughes?s ?DDI account?, according to which the representational capacity of models is due to the interplay between denotation, demonstration, and interpretation; and second, Mauricio Su?rez?s inferential account, which holds that whether or not a model represents its target is at least in part a matter of whether the former allows competent and informed agents to draw specific inferences about the latter. Both accounts reflect a growing recognition of the pragmatic dimension of model-based representation. The chapter closes with a discussion of the issue of realism in relation to models, and of possible non-representational uses of models.
The article argues that performativity theory can shed light on the process of emergence of institutions. This process is not strictly constitutive: institutions such as a new state, a new political party or a firm do not appear at the very moment when somebody declares them as existent. There is always a time lag between the words (declaration) and an emergence of a social fact. In between, processes of persuasion, becoming accepted, i.e., processes of formation of common beliefs and expectations, take place. Those processes refer to the perlocutionary aspects of speech acts and are theatrical in nature. Performativity is always about performance (theatricality of language). At the heart of performativity is not the question of how economists form economy but the question of how economic phenomena come into being in the processes of joint staging of fictions and making believe.
As a discipline, political economy has often been reluctant to engage with the details of market devices and practices. This weakens the microfoundations of its analysis of capitalist macro-dynamics and cedes unnecessarily large stretches of intellectual territory to economics. The performativity approach developed by Michel Callon offers a theoretical way out of this dual dilemma. It allows political economists to study ‘the economy’ directly by investigating the links between the diversity of market devices and the diversity of capitalism. The argument is illustrated by an analysis of the gradual, performative evolution of the investment intermediation market, where the traditional high-cost model of active asset management has been challenged by the emergence of a low-cost alternative in the form of index-tracking investment funds. Highlighting the distributive implications of this development, the current article shows that the financial innovation of exchange-traded funds played a crucial part in the completion of the socio-technical agencement of the ‘passive investor’. In contrast to the recently resurgent notion that the two approaches are incompatible, this article insists that the micro-sociological study of market devices fosters the analytical capacity of political economy by opening up new perspectives on the macro-dynamics of contemporary capitalism. In the case at hand, it brings into sharp relief the contours of the emerging constellation of ‘asset manager capitalism’.
Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit einem ökonomischem Werkzeug, das in Wirtschaftsorganisationen eingesetzt wird, um Zahlenwissen über die finanziellen Folgen von Entscheidungen zu produzieren: dem Business Case. Anhand einer explorativen Erhebung wird nach der empirischen Bedeutung des Business Case und insbesondere nach den Implikationen und Nebenfolgen seines Einsatzes gefragt. Die Analyse basiert auf einer Heuristik, die drei in der Wirtschafts- und Organisationssoziologie einflussreiche Theorieprogramme zusammenführt. In den Theoriewelten des Rationalismus, des Neo-Institutionalismus und der Performativitätstheorie wird (ökonomischen) Werkzeugen jeweils eine spezifische Funktion zugewiesen: Der Rationalismus lässt sie als technische Hilfsmittel erscheinen, der Neo-Institutionalismus als kulturelle Symbole und die Performativitätstheorie als sozio-technische Artefakte. Auch wenn das verwendete empirische Material nicht allzu umfangreich ist, in der Analyse deuten sich empirisch wie theoretisch interessante Befunde an. Es spricht nämlich einiges dafür, dass die soziale Praxis deutlich komplexer, vielschichtiger und fluider ist, als die skizzierten Theoriewelten es nahelegen. Während die drei Programme in dem Feld der soziologischen Theorie in einem zum Teil scharfen Konkurrenzverhältnis stehen, überlappen sich in der Praxis der untersuchten Wirt-schaftsorganisation die alternativen Existenzweisen des Business Case. Ein und dieselben Subjekte greifen in bestimmten Situationen auf das Werkzeug als Hilfsmittel zurück, um die Investitionswerte gegenwärtiger Optionen vorauszukalkulieren und rationale Investitionsentscheidungen zu treffen, in anderen Situationen nutzen sie den Business Case jedoch eher als kulturelles Symbol, um nach anderen Kriterien getroffene Entscheidungen als „Als-Ob-Investitionen“ zu maskieren. Und auch für die performativitätstheoretische Klassifizierung als sozio-technisches Artefakt finden sich in der Empirie Anhaltspunkte. Der Business Case ist nämlich an der Performation der rationalen Investition als universeller wirtschaftlicher Rationalität zumindest mitbeteiligt. Das Werkzeug – darauf deuten die Befunde hin – leistet damit einen eigenständigen Beitrag zur kulturellen Verankerung der Investitionslogik in der Innenwelt von Wirtschaftsorganisationen.
This paper surveys the 'performativity of economics' thesis and uses it as an argument on the influence economics models may have on the economy. Although the performativity thesis has been target of important critiques – it is even called 'vogue' or 'trendy' theory sometimes – its weak version simply claims that theoretical entities can have effects on economic agents' practices. If this weak version is admitted, it is worth to discuss the reasons why economists adopt formal models, though its obvious unrealisticness. We find one of these reasons in the institutions of economics and its processes of epistemic legitimation. By assuming that such a choice may lock economists in a 'bad equilibrium' regarding its aim of understanding and acting in the economy, this paper argues for greater ontological awareness about model building and using.
In most publications, “performativity” has become synonymous with terms like “impact,” “effect,” and “transformation.” As a result, recent contributions tend to focus on what various marketing ideas and frameworks are supposed to do to real markets, without caring much for the linguistic properties of these concepts. The present paper aims at questioning this bias by studying the linguistic and practical circumstances under which marketing knowledge and discourse can become performative. It proposes to do so through a detailed study of Myriam, a highly famous French teaser advertisement where a pretty young woman in a bikini standing on a beach promises: “On September 2, I remove the top,” and then, On September 2, now topless, declares: “On September 4, I remove the bottom.” The careful analysis of this case shows that the performativity of marketing concepts and messages rests on a prodigious combination of words and objects, co-creation schemes, and curiosity.
There is an embarrassing polarization of opinions about the status of economics as an academic discipline, as reflected in epithets such as the Dismal Science and the Queen of the Social Sciences. This collection brings together some of the leading figures in the methodology and philosophy of economics to provide a thoughtful and balanced overview of the current state of debate about the nature and limits of economic knowledge. Authors with partly rival and partly complementary perspectives examine how abstract models work and how they might connect with the real world, they look at the special nature of the facts about the economy, and they direct attention towards the academic institutions themselves and how they shape economic research. These issues are thus analysed from the point of view of methodology, semantics, ontology, rhetoric, sociology, and economics of science.
Publisher's note, introduction and table of contents:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8442.html
This article distinguishes two meanings of the performativity of economics, a thesis advanced by Michel Callon: ‘generic’ performativity, according to which markets and other economic relations are not to be taken as given, but as performed by economic practices; and ‘Austinian’ performativity, in which economics brings into being the relationships it describes. The two versions of performativity are explored by means of an examination of the history of portfolio insurance (a financial-market technique based on the economics of option pricing), of the 1987 stock market crash, and of subsequent efforts to diagnose the causes of the crash and to redesign the market to avoid future catastrophe. The article emphasizes the extent to which the financial markets of high modernity are designed entities, and argues that the question of their design is always a political question, even if it is seldom recognized as such.
The thesis that economics is “performative” (Callon 1998) has provoked much interest but also some puzzlement and not a little confusion. The purpose of this article is to examine from the viewpoint of performativity one of the most successful areas of modern economics, the theory of options, and in so doing hopefully to clarify some of the issues at stake. To claim that economics is performative is to argue that it does things, rather than simply describing (with greater or lesser degrees of accuracy) an external reality that is not affected by economics. But what does economics do, and what are the effects of it doing what it does?
That the theory of options is an appropriate place around which to look for performativity is suggested by two roughly concurrent developments. Since the 1950s, the academic study of finance has been transformed from a low-status, primarily descriptive activity to a high-status, analytical, mathematical, Nobel-prize-winning enterprise. At the core of that enterprise is a theoretical account of options dating from the start of the 1970s. Around option theory there has developed a large array of sophisticated mathematical analyses of financial derivatives. (A “derivative” is a contract or security, such as an option, the value of which depends upon the price of another asset or upon the level of an index or interest rate.)
In An Engine, Not a Camera, Donald MacKenzie argues that the emergence of modern economic theories of finance affected financial markets in fundamental ways. These new, Nobel Prize-winning theories, based on elegant mathematical models of markets, were not simply external analyses but intrinsic parts of economic processes. Paraphrasing Milton Friedman, MacKenzie says that economic models are an engine of inquiry rather than a camera to reproduce empirical facts. More than that, the emergence of an authoritative theory of financial markets altered those markets fundamentally. For example, in 1970, there was almost no trading in financial derivatives such as "futures." By June of 2004, derivatives contracts totaling $273 trillion were outstanding worldwide. MacKenzie suggests that this growth could never have happened without the development of theories that gave derivatives legitimacy and explained their complexities. MacKenzie examines the role played by finance theory in the two most serious crises to hit the world's financial markets in recent years: the stock market crash of 1987 and the market turmoil that engulfed the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. He also looks at finance theory that is somewhat beyond the mainstream—chaos theorist Benoit Mandelbrot's model of "wild" randomness. MacKenzie's pioneering work in the social studies of finance will interest anyone who wants to understand how America’s financial markets have grown into their current form.
Discusses the performativity of economics and proposes theoretical directions to study it from a sociological perspective.
Economists have lately been called upon not only to analyze markets, but to design them. Market design involves a responsibility for detail, a need to deal with all of a market's complications, not just its principle features. Designers therefore cannot work only with the simple conceptual models used for theoretical insights into the general working of markets. Instead, market design calls for an engineering approach. Drawing primarily on the design of the entry level labor market for American doctors (the National Resident Matching Program), and of the auctions of radio spectrum conducted by the Federal Communications Commission, this paper makes the case that experimental and computational economics are natural complements to game theory in the work of design. The paper also argues that some of the challenges facing both markets involve dealing with related kinds of complementarities, and that this suggests an agenda for future theoretical research. Copyright The Econometric Society 2002.
Scientific realism and ontology
- U Mäki
Constructing a market, performing theory: The historical sociology of a financial derivatives exchange
- D Mackenzie
- Y Millo