Do economists make markets? : on the performativity of economics

Bibliographic Information

Do economists make markets? : on the performativity of economics

edited by Donald Mackenzie, Fabian Muniesa and Lucia Siu

Princeton University Press, 2008

  • : pbk

Available at  / 10 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

"Third printing, and first paperback printing, 2008"--T.p. verso

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Around the globe, economists affect markets by saying what markets are doing, what they should do, and what they will do. Increasingly, experimental economists are even designing real-world markets. But, despite these facts, economists are still largely thought of as scientists who merely observe markets from the outside, like astronomers look at the stars. Do Economists Make Markets? boldly challenges this view. It is the first book dedicated to the controversial question of whether economics is performative--of whether, in some cases, economics actually produces the phenomena it analyzes. The book's case studies--including financial derivatives markets, telecommunications-frequency auctions, and individual transferable quotas in fisheries--give substance to the notion of the performativity of economics in an accessible, nontechnical way. Some chapters defend the notion; others attack it vigorously. The book ends with an extended chapter in which Michel Callon, the idea's main formulator, reflects upon the debate and asks what it means to say economics is performative. The book's insights and strong claims about the ways economics is entangled with the markets it studies should interest--and provoke--economic sociologists, economists, and other social scientists. In addition to the editors and Callon, the contributors include Marie-France Garcia-Parpet, Francesco Guala, Emmanuel Didier, Philip Mirowski, Edward Nik-Khah, Petter Holm, Vincent-Antonin Lepinay, and Timothy Mitchell.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations, Boxes, and Tables vii Acknowledgments ix Chapter 1: Introduction by Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Muniesa, and Lucia Siu 1 Chapter 2: The Social Construction of a Perfect Market: The Strawberry Auction at Fontaines-en-Sologne by Marie-France Garcia-Parpet 20 Chapter 3: Is Economics Performative? Option Theory and the Construction of Derivatives Markets by Donald MacKenzie 54 Chapter 4: Decoding Finance: Articulation and Liquidity around a Trading Room by Vincent-Antonin Lepinay 87 Chapter 5: How to Do Things with Experimental Economics by Francesco Guala 128 Chapter 6: Economic Experiments and the Construction of Markets by Fabian Muniesa and Michel Callon 163 Chapter 7: Markets Made Flesh: Performativity, and a Problem in Science Studies, Augmented with Consideration of the FCC Auctions by Philip Mirowski and Edward Nik-Khah 190 Chapter 8: Which Way Is Up on Callon? by Petter Holm 225 Chapter 9: The Properties of Markets by Timothy Mitchell 244 Chapter 10: Do Statistics "Perform" the Economy? by Emmanuel Didier 276 Chapter 11: What Does It Mean to Say That Economics Is Performative? by Michel Callon 311 List of Contributors 358 Index 363

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Details

  • NCID
    BA90383895
  • ISBN
    • 9780691138497
  • LCCN
    2006038670
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Princeton
  • Pages/Volumes
    vi, 373 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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