{"id":1222,"date":"2025-10-02T04:04:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/shifting-gears\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:04:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:04:18","slug":"shifting-gears","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/spurring-economic-transition\/shifting-gears\/","title":{"rendered":"Shifting Gears"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content column wide left blog_post content view\" id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"edit image\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/var\/broker\/storage\/images\/blogs\/spurring-economic-transition\/shifting-gears\/518288-1-eng-gb\/shifting-gears_full_view.jpg\" alt=\"Universidad Navarra\">\n\t<\/div>\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<div class=\"share\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    var addthis_config = {\n        ui_language = 'en'\n    }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis sharing\">\n\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style\" addthis:title=\"Shifting gears \">\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_twitter\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_pinterest_share\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_preferred_4\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_compact\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style\"><\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_config = data_track_addressbar;<\/script><br \/>\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"addthis article_options\">\n\t\t<!-- \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/mandrill\/subscription\/add\/48256\/57818\">Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t -->\n    \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShifting gears<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubDate\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\">Nicky Pouw<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t05 July 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"><b><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Economists seem to find it difficult to accept different schools of economic thought. But pluralism in economic thinking is the solution to the complexity of the real world that surrounds us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Are economists willing to shift gears? This question was asked by Paul Anand of the Open University (United Kingdom) in the morning session on the second day of the <i>Economics for a Better World <\/i>conference in Paris. For the past ten years behavioural economists have&nbsp;given their best shot at calculating models&nbsp;by accepting bounded rationality as the starting point.&nbsp;Instead of assuming that economic agents gravitate uniformly to a singular optimum point, as if led by an invisible hand, the model inquiries were guided by a more realistic assumption of economic agents seeking satisfactory solutions to their economic problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Are these same economists now ready to&nbsp;\u2018shift gears\u2019 and&nbsp;replace the welfarist\u2019s approach by a more comprehensive approach to economics that puts human wellbeing centre stage? And are they also willing to kill some of their own darlings &#8211; for example the notion of individual utility maximization and the endogenous summation of stable preferences technique?&nbsp;That remains yet to be seen. They should, as Allister McGregor (IDS Sussex University) and I argued in the same session, if they do not wish their profession to&nbsp;develop blind spots&nbsp;for heterogeneity, the minority case, emergent properties and dynamic change.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Of course this will increase the complexity of economics tremendously. But the point is not to lose this complexity in economic analysis. The fact of the matter is, there was scope for discussion on pluralism of thought in economics&nbsp;at this conference.&nbsp;Economists do not wish&nbsp;to see their profession being reduced to a set of technical skills, whilst letting slip other ways of thinking &#8211; as Jonathan Leape (London School of Economics) argued in a follow-up session.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Most of us agreed on one thing: the challenge to shift gears starts with the economics curriculum. Students walking out of the economics classroom because they refuse to listen to an old-school economics lecturer teaching them models they cannot apply in the real world \u2013 as happened at Delft University in the Netherlands the other month \u2013 is a really sad thing. Economics lecturers should appreciate more that there is something valuable to learn from different schools of economic thought, without having to be afraid of losing the robustness of their discipline. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"credit\">Photo credit main picture: Universidad Navarra<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"disqus_content\">\n\t\t\t<a name=\"comments\" id=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_shortname = 'broker'; \/\/ required: replace example with your forum shortname\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_identifier = '9803';\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tfunction trackComment(comment)\n\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tfunction disqus_config() {\n\t\t\t\t\tthis.callbacks.onNewComment = [function() { \n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t\t}];\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t(function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tvar dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text\/javascript'; dsq.async = true;\n\t\t\t\t\tdsq.src = '\/\/' + disqus_shortname + 'https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/blogs\/spurring-economic-transition\/.disqus.com\/embed.js';\n\t\t\t\t\t(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);\n\t\t\t\t})();\n\t\t\t<\/script><br \/>\n\t\t\t<!--\n\t\t\t<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\/?ref_noscript\">comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/noscript>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\" class=\"dsq-brlink\">comments powered by <span class=\"logo-disqus\">Disqus<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t-->\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shifting gears Nicky Pouw | 05 July 2025 Economists [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_2.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1222","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shifting gears \/ Spurring economic transition \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Economists seem to find it difficult to accept different schools of economic thought. 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