Economyths

Economyths: Ten Ways Economics Gets It Wrong

Wiley hardcover edition
Author	David Orrell
Language	English
Subject	Economics
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Icon Books and John Wiley & Sons
Publication date	July 2010
Media type	Print, e-book
Pages	288 pp
ISBN	978-1848311480
OCLC	665817373
Dewey Decimal	338
LC Class	HB3722.O77 2010

Economyths is a book by the mathematician David Orrell about the problems with mainstream economics, written for the general reader. The book was initially published in 2010 by Icon Books in the UK with the subtitle Ten Ways Economics That Gets It Wrong, and by John Wiley & Sons in North America (their subtitle omitted the “That”). Icon published a revised version in 2012, with the subtitle How the Science of Complex Systems Is Transforming Economic Thought.^[1] Translated versions were also published in Brazil, China, Japan and Korea.^[2]

Summary

The book has ten chapters, each of which concentrates on a separate “economyth”. These are summarized on p. 6 as follows:

1. The economy can be described by economic laws.
2. The economy is made up of independent individuals
3. The economy is stable
4. Economic risk can be easily managed using statistics
5. The economy is rational and efficient
6. The economy is gender-neutral
7. The economy is fair
8. Economic growth can continue forever
9. Economic growth will make us happy
10. Economic growth is always good

In each case, Orrell explains the role that the myth plays in economics, discusses the problems it creates, and proposes solutions and alternatives based on ideas from areas such as complexity, network theory, nonlinear dynamics, heterodox economics, and so on.

Reviews

In a Bloomberg piece on business books, economist William White said that the book “Lists 10 crucial assumptions (the economy is simple, fair, stable, etc.) and argues both entertainingly and convincingly that each one is totally at odds with reality. Orrell also suggests that adopting the science of complex systems would radically improve economic policymaking.”^[3]

The economist Robert Nelson wrote in the International Journal of Social Economics that the book suffered from a number of omissions, in particular a fuller exploration of “the religious roles played by neo-classical economics.” However he concludes that “Whatever its omissions and other failings, much of the book is devoted to making a strong case for one very important finding – the intellectual poverty of neo-classical economics … A wide audience including many non-economists could benefit from reading it.”^[4]

In National Review, economist Michael Yates also noted some omissions, such as a discussion of worker organisation, but wrote that the book “makes sound recommendations that economists utilize methods of analysis and techniques that have proven their worth in other fields of study … Economists ignore such research at their peril.”^[5]

References