Justin,
You need to go and work in a large corporation for about 10 years; Coase'
work is just so much phlogiston theory.
Ian
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, January 31, 2000 6:58 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [PEN-L:15868] Re: on how economists publish
>
>
> OK, but consider that among the most important works of economics
> of the last
> century are Mises' article from 1920 on socialist calculation, Lange's
> "reply" and Hayek's response, all journal articles, and Coase's
> paper on the
> theory of the firm, perhaps THE most important work in 20th century
> economics. Wasn't Arrow and Debreu originally a journal article, too?
>
> Sure, there's also the Theory of the Leisure Calss and the
> General Theory,
> etc. But the point si taht you don't have to writea book to think a
> different thought. You just need vision and economy of style,w hich of
> coursea re hard commodities to come by.
>
> --jks
>
> In a message dated 00-01-31 19:35:24 EST, you write:
>
> << The contemporary economics profession emphasizes the journal article as
> the vehicle for developing new knowledge claims in economics. In
> important
> and poorly understood respects, this practice has changed the
> ways in which
> knowledge claims are developed. More importantly, it has also
> affected the
> type of knowledge claims that _can_ be developed. This is
> because the space
> limitations imposed by the journal format encourage the adoption of
> formalized thinking that economizes on space by making use of
> conventional
> assumptions and frameworks. In doing so, it places a huge
> handicap on those
> trying to develop new visions that embody both new sets of
> assumptions and
> new sets of economic relations. This is because such projects require
> enormously more space in which to justify assumptions, and to develop the
> particulars governing the framework of analysis. Contrastingly,
> scholarship
> that proceeds within the convention is free of these burdens, since the
> underlying assumptions and framework are taken for granted. >>
>
