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Péter Galbács Budapest Business School

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For the last few decades, considerable attention has been paid to the methodology of mainstream economics. It is not mere chance that economics is surrounded by methodological debates. If its relevance is at stake, this can be either refuted or proven most efficiently at a methodological level. Arguments for and against mainstream economics underline the methodological homogeneity of mainstream economics, while serious, though almost neglected, arguments can be found for a view according to which the long history of mainstream economics can be described as a sequence of methodological breaks. I argue, firstly, for a sharp demarcation by new classical macroeconomics from the Friedmanian instrumentalism and, secondly, for the realism of new classicals. I strive to identify the epistemological principles underlying Lucas’ models and to highlight the signs of that demarcation as well. I concentrate on the techniques by which new classicals could set their models into an indirect relationship with reality. It is also highlighted that the common terminology, according to which the assumptions of abstract economic models are uniformly regarded as “unrealistic”, actually refers to two different techniques. From these approaches, there is only one which can be justifiably labelled as realist.

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Senior editors

Editors-in-Chief: István P. Székely, Dóra Győrffy

Editor(s): Judit Kálmán

Associate Editors

  • Péter Benczúr, Joint Joint Research Center, European Commission
  • Dóra Benedek, International Monetary Fund
  • Balázs Égert, OECD
  • Dániel Prinz, World Bank
  • Rok Spruk, University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business, Slovenia

Editorial Board

  • Anders Åslund, Georgetown University and Advisory Council of CASE, USA
  • István Benczes, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary 
  • Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
  • Fabrizio Coricelli, University of Siena, Italy
  • László Csaba, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary and Central European University, Austria
  • Beáta Farkas, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Szeged, Hungary
  • Péter Halmai, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and National University of Public Service, Hungary
  • Martin Kahanec, Central European University, Austria
  • Michael Landesmann, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW), Austria
  • Péter Mihályi, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
  • Debora Revoltella, European Investment Bank

Corvinus University of Budapest
Department of Economics
Fővám tér 8 Budapest, H-1093, Hungary
E-mail: judit.kalman@uni-corvinus.hu

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Acta Oeconomica
Language English
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1966
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Founder Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
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ISSN 0001-6373 (Print)
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