Modern academic economics is not explanatorily successful. Although this situation has long been evident, it has become widely recognised only with the onset of the recent economic crisis. With the situation now widely acknowledged, however, various initiatives have been launched in the hope of achieving something better. One highly significant such initiative has stemmed from George Soros’ insight that whilst reflexivity is a widespread feature of social reality, the sorts of economic theories that have dominated academic economic output are fundamentally inconsistent with it. Here I argue that whilst Soros’ contribution contains insight, it does not go far enough, and risks having the insights contained neglected due to the inclusion by Soros of various questionable assessments that are in any case unnecessary to the central argument.
Tag: efficient markets hypothesis
On the Epistemological Status of the Efficient Market Hypothesis
Abstract This article studies the epistemological status of the efficient markets hypothesis. Without judging whether it is true or not, we show that it cannot, in any rigorous and meaningful sense, be understood as an empirical and testable proposition. No experience exists which can irrevocably falsify it. On the contrary, we show that it can … Continue reading On the Epistemological Status of the Efficient Market Hypothesis