Rotterdam 2000
Changing Instruments in Economics

20-22 April, 2000, Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

• Announcement
• Programme
• List of participants
• Organising committee

Announcement

While the history of economics has traditionally tended to focus on theories and ideas - "economic thought" - historians of economics are increasingly approaching their subject from different angles. One such angle, inspired by recent work in the history and sociology of science, involves the consideration of those instruments used in the construction of economic theory and the pursuit of applied economic research.

Economists' instruments of investigation range from mathematical techniques to computer technology, from questionnaires to data sets, and from Internet to laboratories. Some of these instruments were fIrst developed outside, and then transferred into, economics, while others were initially built for economic purposes but tumed out to be more generally applicable. Examples are statistics and probability theory, but also analogue computers for understanding the dynamics of an economic system, graphical methods in business cycle research, operations research techniques for economic planning. Some recent branches in economics, computational economics and experimental economics, are even explicitly defined and named by their main tool, the computer and the experiment.

To solve their daily puzzles, economists found instruments that helped their research. Sometimes these instruments also changed the nature of the problems to be solved, which required new instruments, etc. The theme of ECHE 2000 is the role and function of these instruments in economic practice and their interdependence with economic ideas, with the aim of reconsidering the relationship between instruments and theory. We would like to gain more understanding of how instruments were used as heuristic devices that shaped the field in which they were used, in the sense that they framed the answers that could be posed, molded the questions that could be answered, formed the method of inquiry, etc.

More generally, how did instruments change what is regarded as economic explanation or understanding? Why did some instruments temporarlly succeed while others failed? What may be said about the relationship between instruments of economic inquiry and political or cultural commitments? To what extent did the adoption of an instrument bring with it a ser of broader concerns and engagements?
We hope that ECHE 2000 will focus on the many dimensions of the historical relationship between economics and its instruments. Paper proposals of around 1000 words should clearly indicare the contribution of the paper to the theme of the conference. The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 31 August 1999. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent on 30 September 1999. The accepted papers should be ready on 29 February 2000.

All proposals and requests for further information should be sent to:
Marcel Boumans, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 11, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands. e-mail: boumans@fee.uva.nl

Programme

List of participants

Organising Committee

José Luis Cardoso (Technical University, Lisbon)
Philippe Fontaine (Université des Antilles, Guyane)
Albert Jolink (Erasmus University, Rotterdam)
Robert Leonard (University of Quebec, Montréal)