Microfoundations Reconsidered

The authors of this provocative volume critique the standard narrative of mainstream economics and present evidence proving that narrative unreliable. Looking beyond the conventional history, they examine the relationship of microeconomics to macroeconomics, beginning with their emergence as distinct fields in the early 1930s, and challenge the association of microfoundations with Robert Lucas and rational expectations. The book covers key aspects of micro- and macroeconomics in an effort to understand and explain the relationship between the two and whether one field eliminates or dominates the other. Taking a five-pronged approach, the authors identify alternative microfoundational programs; assess the variety of approaches to microfoundations and how they shape microeconomics; ask whether general equilibrium can be interpreted as emerging at the boundary between the micro- and macroeconomics divide; examine how microfoundations relate to contemporaneous developments in other fields of economics; and detail how the history of microfoundations fuels macroeconomics practice. Microfoundations Reconsidered is a valuable addition to the macroeconomic research literature. It is ideally suited to students, scholars, researchers and practioners with an interest in macro- and microeconomics and the history and future of economics.