A tese de performatividade e o ambiente das ideias: o papel dos modelos formais em economia

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Abstract

Resumo: Este trabalho expõe a tese de performatividade da economia e a utiliza como argumento a respeito da influência que os modelos dos economistas têm no sistema econômico. Embora a tese de performatividade tenha sido alvo de críticas - sendo até considerada um modismo por alguns críticos -, sua versão fraca aponta que as construções teóricas podem ter efeitos sobre as práticas dos agentes na economia. Admitindo essa versão fraca, é importante discutir os motivos para a adoção de modelos formais, malgrado sua patente falta de realismo. Encontramos uma das razões nas instituições da economia e seus processos de legitimação epistêmica. Assumindo a possibilidade de que tal escolha possa colocar os economistas em um resultado ruim (lock-in) em relação ao objetivo de entender o sistema econômico real e nele atuar, o trabalho defende maior percepção ontológica na formulação e uso de modelos.

Translated abstract

Abstract: This paper examines the 'performativity of economics' thesis and uses it as an argument for the influence economic models may have on the economy. Although the performativity thesis has been the target of important critiques - even being called 'vogue' or 'trendy' theory sometimes - its weaker version simply claims that theoretical entities can have effects on economic agents' practices. If this weaker version is admitted, it is worthwhile to discuss the reasons why economists adopt formal models, even though they are obviously unrealistic. We find one of these reasons in the institutions of economics and its processes of epistemic legitimization. By assuming that such a choice may lock economists in a 'bad equilibrium' regarding their aim of understanding and acting in the economy, this paper argues for greater ontological awareness about model building and use.

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An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change

Richard R. Nelson (1982)

This book contains the most sustained and serious attack on mainstream, neoclassical economics in more than forty years. Nelson and Winter focus their critique on the basic question of how firms and industries change overtime. They marshal significant objections to the fundamental neoclassical assumptions of profit maximization and market equilibrium, which they find ineffective in the analysis of technological innovation and the dynamics of competition among firms. To replace these assumptions, they borrow from biology the concept of natural selection to construct a precise and detailed evolutionary theory of business behavior. They grant that films are motivated by profit and engage in search for ways of improving profits, but they do not consider them to be profit maximizing. Likewise, they emphasize the tendency for the more profitable firms to drive the less profitable ones out of business, but they do not focus their analysis on hypothetical states of industry equilibrium. The results of their new paradigm and analytical framework are impressive. Not only have they been able to develop more coherent and powerful models of competitive firm dynamics under conditions of growth and technological change, but their approach is compatible with findings in psychology and other social sciences. Finally, their work has important implications for welfare economics and for government policy toward industry.