From Economics Imperialism to Freakonomics:

Is or has economics ever been the imperial social science? Could or should it ever be so? These are the central concerns of this book. It involves a critical reflection on the process of how economics became the way it is, characterised by a narrow and intolerant orthodoxy, that has, nonetheless, increasingly directed its attention to appropriating the subject matter of other social sciences through the process termed 'economics imperialism'. In short, the book addresses the shifting boundaries between economics and the other social sciences as seen from the confines of 'the dismal science', with some reflection on the responses to the economic imperialists by other disciplines.

Ben Fine is Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of Social Capital Versus Social Theory (2001), The World of Consumption (2002), the co-editor of Development Policy in the 21st Century (2001), and co-author of From Political Economy to Economics (2009), all published by Routledge. Dimitris Milonakis is Associate Professor and Head of the Economics Department at the University of Crete. He is the co-author of From Political Economy to Economics (2009), published by Routledge.

Preface	p. x
Introduction and overview	p. 1
Preliminaries	p. 1
From reductionism ...	p. 2
... To expansionism	p. 5
General outline	p. 8
The historical logic of economics imperialism	p. 11
Introduction	p. 11
Questions raised by economics imperialism	p. 13
Bringing back in the 'social'?	p. 17
Concluding remarks	p. 26
The economic approach: marginalism extended	p. 29
Introduction	p. 29
Becker and the pure, if rough, road to economics imperialism	p. 32
Politics as public choice: Buchanan and Tullock	p. 36
From the rational to the non-rational	p. 42
Concluding remarks	p. 51
New economics imperialism: the revolution portrayed	p. 56
Introduction	p. 56
The information-theoretic approach: from Akerlof to Stiglitz	p. 58
Human capital, finance, development and space	p. 66
Concluding remarks	p. 74
From economics, through institutions, to society?	p. 78
Introduction	p. 78
New institutional economics ...	p. 79
...Versus new economics sociology	p. 87
Concluding remarks	p. 91
From social capital to freakonomics	p. 94
Introduction	p. 94
Economic history and social capital	p. 96
From Coase theorem to Coasean worlds	p. 99
Freakonomics-abnormal economics as normal	p. 106
Concluding remarks	p. 110
Economics confronts the social sciences: resistance or smooth progression?	p. 115
Introduction	p. 115
From Becker to Akerlof and beyond	p. 116
Economics: bright light or dim science?	p. 122
Concluding remarks	p. 126
Whither economics?	p. 130
Introduction	p. 130
How economics got its spots	p. 131
The why and how	p. 136
Concluding remarks	p. 147
Whither social science?	p. 149
Introduction	p. 149
Beyond neoliberalism and postmodernism: social science at a crossroads	p. 149
Structure and agency in social theory	p. 153
Concluding remarks	p. 158
Whither political economy?	p. 161
Introduction	p. 161
Historical and social economics versus value theory?	p. 162
What is to be done?	p. 165
Concluding remarks	p. 172
References	p. 176
Index	p. 198
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From Economics Imperialism to Freakonomics: The Shifting Boundaries between Economics and other Social Sciences

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