Towards a unified theory of market prices

Turning to Pricing in Practice

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4237496
AutoresJonas Bååth (0000-0002-9521-1833, Lund University, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume21
Fascículo1
Páginas5-23
Data de publicação2023-03-17
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocio-Economic Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1475-1461 • E-ISSN: 1475-147X
DOI10.1093/ser/mwac010
OpenAlexW4210627994
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas42

This article proceeds from the question: how do prices in markets work? In socio-economic theories, I find two answers to this question. The structural-coordinative approach explains prices as outcomes-coordinative effects of pricing scripts installed by exogenous, institutionalized social structures. The performative-epistemological approach explains prices as market devices-endogenous performative-epistemological tools of marketization. While not necessarily antithetical, the two theories define market knowledge, pricing and price in distinct ways. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from the Swedish meat industry, this article examines the merits of the two aforementioned theories and the prospects for unifying them. The conclusion presents an empirically grounded proposal for such a unification, emphasizing that prices, in practice, simultaneously express embedding social structures and mobilize marketization. A unified theory of market prices allows for identifying and analysing the recursive relation of social structures and performed episteme in pricing; how prices both express and realize market organization

Economics · Epistemology · Marketization · Microeconomics · Neoclassical economics · Performative utterance · Political science · Positive economics · Sociology · Unification · Computer Science · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Management and Organizational Studies · Wine Industry and Tourism