In a call to arms for economists, David Zetland (from aguanomics) writes:
As an economist, I was appalled to read the comments of recent PhDs on Ostrom's award:
http://aguanomics.com/2009/10/economics-fail.html
As I am sure you know, she has made critical contributions to understanding how common pool resources can be managed in the absence of private property rights. In these days of climate change, collapsing fisheries, etc., I can hardly think of a better person to get the prize (besides Williamson, whose contributions are also critical to understanding when markets/firms work or fail!).
Unfortunately, these NEW PhDs -- perhaps an unrepresentative sample or perhaps the best of the best -- seem to be ignoring relevance in favor of "mathiness"
Here's the money quote: "If she [Ostrom] is so big and important how come there isn't a theorem that is named after her? huh? tell me, smart ass!"
This is ridiculous.
I think it's high time that we BREAK the Core, replacing at least half of it with the economics of people -- not an imaginary, but mathematical homo economicus.
I am doing that in my course (http://www.kysq.org/EEP100/) for undergrads, but the real work (yes WORK) is really on remaking the PhD curriculum.
Haven't we falsified the importance of the status quo by now? It's time to discard this rejected hypothesis and try something different, something that WORKS.
My thoughts below: