This paper argues that, in attempting to provide accurate explanations of economic behavior, economists have to account, in the structures of their models, for the cultural backgrounds of the agents in question. In particular, utility and profit maximization (or their equivalent) cannot be used...

This paper suggests that mathematics may have become so important in economics for four reasons: (1) to make use of existing human capital, (ii) to attain scientific respectability, (3) to help assure security with respect to claims of truth, and (4) because economics was created primarily by...

This paper presents a model of the firm that includes the possibility of firm and employee on-the-job decision making based on alternatives to profit and utility maximization. Such alternatives are relevant and significant when explaining firm activity in cultural environments in which...

When empirically investigating situations in which human ignorance and historical time are significant features, use of the notion of probability, in any of its forms, is not legitimate. Thus, familiar distributional techniques such as hypothesis testing and estimation, and standard methods of...

In responding to Guerrien and Benicourt's criticisms of, and reasons for abandoning, microeconomic theory, this article first discusses certain aspects of the general purpose and methodology of that theory. It then presents counter arguments to four specific Guerrien–Benicourt reasons for...

The purpose of this paper is to open a dialogue with heterodox economists about what, from a neoclassical perspective, is valid in heterodox criticisms of neoclassical microeconomics. Many heterodox criticisms of neoclassical microeconomics are valid to a neoclassicist; but some are not....

This innovative and multidisciplinary book explores Japan’s economic crisis and recovery. Specifically, it analyses the role of corporations, the state, macroeconomic and industrial policy, and the changing status of Japan as an economic role model. The contributors list comprises an...