Comment intégrer l'économie comparative dans l'économie ?

Abstract

This analysis of leading research programs in comparative economics also assesses their actual and potential functions in the economist's toolkit. Among the explicitly comparative programs are those having taken a traditional approach to Comparative Economic Systems (in particular the versions of T. Koopmans and J. Montias or of E. Neuberger and W. Duffy) and the recent approach via a Comparative Institutional Analysis (A. Greif and M. Aoki). Among the implicitly comparative programs are those having to do with German "Ordoliberalism" (initiated by W. Eucken) and, more recently, French regulation theory. Comparative economics is analyzed from the perspective of Eucken's "great antinomy" with its controversial implications about the nature of economic knowledge. The issues date back to the late 19th-century Methodenstreit, even though an adequate response to them is still on the agenda. Most modern economic theory depends very much on the ceteris paribus clause. To decrease this dependence, economics should take the comparative research strategy seriously. A methodological analysis of comparative economics turns up a few overlooked but crucial epis- temological points (in particular the heuristic function of ideal-types) essential to economic inquiry. Comparative economics is indispensable for bridging the gaps between theoretical and empirical inquiry, and between the science and art of economics.