Synopses & Reviews
Around the globe, economists affect markets by saying what markets are doing, what they should do, and what they will do. Increasingly, experimental economists are even designing real-world markets. But, despite these facts, economists are still largely thought of as scientists who merely observe markets from the outside, like astronomers look at the stars. Do Economists Make Markets? boldly challenges this view. It is the first book dedicated to the controversial question of whether economics is performative--of whether, in some cases, economics actually produces the phenomena it analyzes.
The book's case studies--including financial derivatives markets, telecommunications-frequency auctions, and individual transferable quotas in fisheries--give substance to the notion of the performativity of economics in an accessible, nontechnical way. Some chapters defend the notion; others attack it vigorously. The book ends with an extended chapter in which Michel Callon, the idea's main formulator, reflects upon the debate and asks what it means to say economics is performative.
The book's insights and strong claims about the ways economics is entangled with the markets it studies should interest--and provoke--economic sociologists, economists, and other social scientists.
In addition to the editors and Callon, the contributors include Marie-France Garcia-Parpet, Francesco Guala, Emmanuel Didier, Philip Mirowski, Edward Nik-Khah, Petter Holm, Vincent-Antonin Lépinay, and Timothy Mitchell.
Review
The book should interest anyone studying the nuts and bolts of the workings of markets. Claes-Fredrick Helgesson - Organization Studies
Review
"In short, this is a strong volume about an emergent academic subdiscipline. Part of its strength comes from incorporating some of its toughest critics."--Saskia Sassen, American Journal of Sociology
Review
MacKenzie . . . skillfully describes the history of the financial derivatives market, claiming that the economists caused trader behavior to conform more closely to the model. . . . The volume is an excellent introduction to the debate over performativity and will appeal to a broad set of social scientists. -- W. J. Polley, Choice A highly stimulating volume. . . . Many investors will be surprised to discover the breadth of intellectual interest in the markets they troll for profits. -- Martin S. Fridson, Financial Analysts Journal For those who are already interested in the performativity of economics, this volume gathers some already familiar contributions, but will still constitute an obligatory point of passage. For those who, finally, are broadly interested in new ways to analyse the shaping of markets, this volume represents a challenging research programme worth taking seriously. -- Claes-Fredrick Helgesson, Organization Studies The book should interest anyone studying the nuts and bolts of the workings of markets. -- James G. Devine, Science & Society In short, this is a strong volume about an emergent academic subdiscipline. Part of its strength comes from incorporating some of its toughest critics. -- Saskia Sassen, American Journal of Sociology In short, what MacKenzie presents is some of the best evidence we have got for the self-realizing potential of economic theory as a phenomenon that relies on certain benign conditions being met for the self-realization to take hold. -- Matthias Klaes, Journal of Economics and Philosophy
Review
"MacKenzie . . . skillfully describes the history of the financial derivatives market, claiming that the economists caused trader behavior to conform more closely to the model. . . . The volume is an excellent introduction to the debate over performativity and will appeal to a broad set of social scientists."--W. J. Polley, Choice
Review
"A highly stimulating volume. . . . Many investors will be surprised to discover the breadth of intellectual interest in the markets they troll for profits."--Martin S. Fridson, Financial Analysts Journal
Review
"For those who are already interested in the performativity of economics, this volume gathers some already familiar contributions, but will still constitute an obligatory point of passage. For those who, finally, are broadly interested in new ways to analyse the shaping of markets, this volume represents a challenging research programme worth taking seriously."--Claes-Fredrick Helgesson, Organization Studies
Review
"The book should interest anyone studying the nuts and bolts of the workings of markets."--James G. Devine, Science and Society
Review
"In short, what MacKenzie presents is some of the best evidence we have got for the self-realizing potential of economic theory as a phenomenon that relies on certain benign conditions being met for the self-realization to take hold."--Matthias Klaes, Journal of Economics and Philosophy
Review
In short, this is a strong volume about an emergent academic subdiscipline. Part of its strength comes from incorporating some of its toughest critics. James G. Devine - Science - & - Society
Synopsis
Around the globe, economists affect markets by saying what markets are doing, what they should do, and what they will do. Increasingly, experimental economists are even designing real-world markets. But, despite these facts, economists are still largely thought of as scientists who merely observe markets from the outside, like astronomers look at the stars.
Do Economists Make Markets? boldly challenges this view. It is the first book dedicated to the controversial question of whether economics is performative--of whether, in some cases, economics actually produces the phenomena it analyzes.
The book's case studies--including financial derivatives markets, telecommunications-frequency auctions, and individual transferable quotas in fisheries--give substance to the notion of the performativity of economics in an accessible, nontechnical way. Some chapters defend the notion; others attack it vigorously. The book ends with an extended chapter in which Michel Callon, the idea's main formulator, reflects upon the debate and asks what it means to say economics is performative.
The book's insights and strong claims about the ways economics is entangled with the markets it studies should interest--and provoke--economic sociologists, economists, and other social scientists.
In addition to the editors and Callon, the contributors include Marie-France Garcia-Parpet, Francesco Guala, Emmanuel Didier, Philip Mirowski, Edward Nik-Khah, Petter Holm, Vincent-Antonin Lépinay, and Timothy Mitchell.
Synopsis
"This excellent collection gathers the very best work on the fascinating topic of performativity in economics. The book offers articulate presentations of a wide range of different views--not only pro and con, but various pros and cons. It is as important as it is likely to be controversial."
--Wade Hands, University of Puget Sound"Do Economists Make Markets? contains a number of truly excellent and thought-provoking studies, including the most important statement in English on economic performativity by the theory's inventor, Michel Callon."--Richard Swedberg, Cornell University
"This is an absolutely terrific volume. Built on a rich and varied set of empirical studies of how economic technologies 'perform the world,' Do Economists Make Markets? establishes the 'science studies' approach to markets as a valid alternative, and in some cases as a complement, to more conventional approaches in economic sociology. It breathes new life into the study of economics by offering a stimulating account of the complex ways in which economists, economic machines, and society co-constitute one another."--Marion Fourcade, University of California, Berkeley
Synopsis
"This excellent collection gathers the very best work on the fascinating topic of performativity in economics. The book offers articulate presentations of a wide range of different views--not only pro and con, but various pros and cons. It is as important as it is likely to be controversial."--Wade Hands, University of Puget Sound
"Do Economists Make Markets? contains a number of truly excellent and thought-provoking studies, including the most important statement in English on economic performativity by the theory's inventor, Michel Callon."--Richard Swedberg, Cornell University
"This is an absolutely terrific volume. Built on a rich and varied set of empirical studies of how economic technologies 'perform the world,' Do Economists Make Markets? establishes the 'science studies' approach to markets as a valid alternative, and in some cases as a complement, to more conventional approaches in economic sociology. It breathes new life into the study of economics by offering a stimulating account of the complex ways in which economists, economic machines, and society co-constitute one another."--Marion Fourcade, University of California, Berkeley
Synopsis
Around the globe, economists affect markets by saying what markets are doing, what they should do, and what they will do. Increasingly, experimental economists are even designing real-world markets. But, despite these facts, economists are still largely thought of as scientists who merely observe markets from the outside, like astronomers look at the stars.
Do Economists Make Markets? boldly challenges this view. It is the first book dedicated to the controversial question of whether economics is performative--of whether, in some cases, economics actually produces the phenomena it analyzes.
The book's case studies--including financial derivatives markets, telecommunications-frequency auctions, and individual transferable quotas in fisheries--give substance to the notion of the performativity of economics in an accessible, nontechnical way. Some chapters defend the notion; others attack it vigorously. The book ends with an extended chapter in which Michel Callon, the idea's main formulator, reflects upon the debate and asks what it means to say economics is performative.
The book's insights and strong claims about the ways economics is entangled with the markets it studies should interest--and provoke--economic sociologists, economists, and other social scientists.
In addition to the editors and Callon, the contributors include Marie-France Garcia-Parpet, Francesco Guala, Emmanuel Didier, Philip Mirowski, Edward Nik-Khah, Petter Holm, Vincent-Antonin Lépinay, and Timothy Mitchell.
Synopsis
"This excellent collection gathers the very best work on the fascinating topic of performativity in economics. The book offers articulate presentations of a wide range of different views--not only pro and con, but various pros and cons. It is as important as it is likely to be controversial."--Wade Hands, University of Puget Sound
"Do Economists Make Markets? contains a number of truly excellent and thought-provoking studies, including the most important statement in English on economic performativity by the theory's inventor, Michel Callon."--Richard Swedberg, Cornell University
"This is an absolutely terrific volume. Built on a rich and varied set of empirical studies of how economic technologies 'perform the world,' Do Economists Make Markets? establishes the 'science studies' approach to markets as a valid alternative, and in some cases as a complement, to more conventional approaches in economic sociology. It breathes new life into the study of economics by offering a stimulating account of the complex ways in which economists, economic machines, and society co-constitute one another."--Marion Fourcade, University of California, Berkeley
About the Author
Donald MacKenzie is a professor of sociology at the University of Edinburgh. His most recent book is "An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets". Fabian Muniesa is a researcher and teacher at the Ecole des Mines de Paris and a member of the Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation. Lucia Siu is a teaching fellow at Hong Kong's Lingnan University.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations, Boxes, and Tables vii
Acknowledgments ix
Chapter 1: Introduction by Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Muniesa, and Lucia Siu 1
Chapter 2: The Social Construction of a Perfect Market: The Strawberry Auction at Fontaines-en-Sologne by Marie-France Garcia-Parpet 20
Chapter 3: Is Economics Performative? Option Theory and the Construction of Derivatives Markets by Donald MacKenzie 54
Chapter 4: Decoding Finance: Articulation and Liquidity around a Trading Room by Vincent-Antonin Lépinay 87
Chapter 5: How to Do Things with Experimental Economics by Francesco Guala 128
Chapter 6: Economic Experiments and the Construction of Markets by Fabian Muniesa and Michel Callon 163
Chapter 7: Markets Made Flesh: Performativity, and a Problem in Science Studies, Augmented with Consideration of the FCC Auctions by Philip Mirowski and Edward Nik-Khah 190
Chapter 8: Which Way Is Up on Callon? by Petter Holm 225
Chapter 9: The Properties of Markets by Timothy Mitchell 244
Chapter 10: Do Statistics "Perform" the Economy? by Emmanuel Didier 276
Chapter 11: What Does It Mean to Say That Economics Is Performative? by Michel Callon 311
List of Contributors 358
Index 363