From exploratory modeling to technical expertise

Autor(en)
Verena Halsmayer
Abstrakt

Combining concrete policy-oriented modeling strategies of World War II with what was received as traditional neoclassical theory, in 1956 Robert Solow constructed a simple, clean, and smooth-functioning “design” model that served many different purposes. As a working object, it enabled experimentation with utopian long-run equilibrium growth. As an instrument of measurement, it was applied to time-series data. As a prototype, it was supposed to feed into larger-scale econometric models that were, in turn, thought of as technologies for policy advice. Used as a teaching device, Solow’s design became a medium of “spreading the technique” and one of the symbols for neoclassical macroeconomics that soon became associated with MIT.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Geschichte
Journal
History of Political Economy
Band
46
Seiten
229-251
Anzahl der Seiten
23
ISSN
0018-2702
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-2716181
Publikationsdatum
2014
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
601022 Zeitgeschichte, 502027 Politische Ökonomie
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
History, Economics and Econometrics
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/7a2381db-090f-48f8-a5a1-2e798eee6958