Twenty Five Methodological Issues in Memory of Mark Blaug

This paper discusses twenty five methodological issues covering selected areas of both micro and macroeconomics. Included on the micro side are issues related to modelling the price system, assessing its efficiency, competing models of competition, modelling technological change and economic growth, dealing with risk and uncertainty, and policies related to R&D support, picking winners, and support of infant industries. Included on the macro side are issues related to the alleged refutation of old fashioned Keynesian economies by the stagflation of the 1970s, the use of the Dixit Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition in macro models, the current imperative that all the micro behaviour underling macro relations be based on dynamic inter-temporal optimization, the downplaying of fluctuations in aggregate demand as a driver of cyclical fluctuations, and the interpretation of the economy’s recent behaviour.