Abstract
The Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Professor Kirman when he visited the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE) in late November 2010 to present a paper on the state of macroeconomics. In this interview, Professor Kirman discusses his understanding of the relationship between individual behaviour and aggregate patterns, why it is essential to consider the interactions between agents, and what the study of ant’s behaviour can teach us about collective human actions. He explains the core concepts of his ‘interactionist’ approach, including microfoundations, rationality and emergence, and reflects on the potential of agent-based modelling, the limitations of game theory, the possibility of aggregate-level analysis, and the relevance of behavioural studies. The interview also ranges more widely, discussing the different goals of economics (for instance, explaining, predicting, and controlling), the role of mathematics in modern economics, and the state of macroeconomics.
Highlights
EJPE’S NOTE: This interview was conducted by David Bassett and François Claveau
I found myself asking: “Do I want to do this for the rest of my life?” I went to some evening classes in economics organized by the Workers Educational Association, and I thought: “Oh, that is really interesting
Economics was about unemployment and inflation and so on, and yet here I was struggling with fixed point theorems and all that stuff
Summary
EJPE’S NOTE: This interview was conducted by David Bassett and François Claveau. Bassett is a Research Master student in philosophy and economics in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. A simple way to model this is to give simple rules to agents that you find plausible and look at how that works.
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