Institutionalizing neoclassical economics in Africa

Instruments, ideology and implications

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2159854
AutoresH Stein (0000-0003-3845-860X)
Ano2021
Volume50
Fascículo1
Páginas120-147
Data de publicação2021-01-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085147.2021.1841937
OpenAlexW3127725804
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas23

Post-war development economics drew broadly from an array of different theoretical approaches, including theorizing from the south. Academic economists and policy makers in African countries openly and critically debated alternative possibilities from different theoretical traditions. As the multi-paradigmatic approach was under assault, the great development economist Albert Hirschman reminded us, in 1981, that this transcendence beyond monoeconomics arose out of the 'unprecedented discredit of orthodox economics' from within the economics establishment following the Great Depression and that the reassertion of neoclassical economics was somewhat predictable. The unevenness of the patterns of development provided the opening for the wholesale attack on development economics. Following the crisis of the universities in the 1980s, brought on to some degree by donors like the World Bank, economics departments on the African continent were reconstituted and reshaped in the image of the monoeconomics of the West. Capacity building efforts emphasized a single theoretical paradigm aimed in part at supporting structural adjustment policies. The African Economic Research Consortium, based in Nairobi and founded in 1988, played a key role in transforming the economics profession in Africa. The paper will map out the institutional dynamics and the consequences of reconstructing economic departments and government agencies in African countries

Economic system · Economics · Ideology · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Politics · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Economic Growth and Development · International Development and Aid · Law