Book contents
- Managing Growth in Miniature
- Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics
- Managing Growth in Miniature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Introduction
- 1 The Artifact and the Experimental Report
- 2 The Problematic of Growth and Productivity
- 3 Modeling the Economic System
- 4 Growth in Miniature
- 5 Model Talk
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- References
- Index
- Series page
1 - The Artifact and the Experimental Report
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2024
- Managing Growth in Miniature
- Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics
- Managing Growth in Miniature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Introduction
- 1 The Artifact and the Experimental Report
- 2 The Problematic of Growth and Productivity
- 3 Modeling the Economic System
- 4 Growth in Miniature
- 5 Model Talk
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- References
- Index
- Series page
Summary
Chapter 1 focuses on the narratological strategies that turned a set of mathematical equations into an economic model in Robert Solow’s “Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,” the article behind the classic reference “Solow 1956.” In the first place, the paper was all about the setup of a smoothly working neoclassical growing economy, which consisted in the interplay of algebraic equations, diagrammatic visualizations, and verbal accounts. The article revolved around this artifact, made (up) by the narrator figure and, at the same time, to be used and experimented with by others, independently of its construction history. While denoting the artifact “a model” throughout, references to a world beyond its narrow boundaries were vague. Straightforward was its function as an exemplar for how proper economic reasoning should look. The text presented its model as improving a so-called precursor, the “Harrod–Domar model.” In this way, it contributed to canonizing earlier dynamic theory with its focus on instability and crisis and set the course for an angled historiography of growth theory that downplays the differences in approaches and objects until the present day.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Managing Growth in MiniatureSolow's Model as an Artifact, pp. 30 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024