B40 - Economic Methodology: GeneralReturn

O. R. Lange, a Polish economist, statistician, econometrician, sociologist, politician and diplomat was classified as a reformist Marxist. He became famous for studies on planning and socialist economies. Lange demonstrates and proves the possibility of the existence of an effective socialist system. He also analyzed capitalist economy, e.g., the issue of cyclical fluctuations and unemployment.

The article discusses utilitarianism in the form elaborated by John Stuart Mill. Although utilitarianism has been variously employed by philosophers and economists, Mill is the figure most closely associated with this theory. His ideas deeply influenced economists of the 20th century and continue to shape the postulates of contemporary economics and other social sciences. We demonstrate how seminal utilitarianism was to Mill's work, explore what influenced his thoughts on it, and place our analysis in the socioeconomic context of the time Mill was writing. We argue that utilitarianism has eclipsed Mill's other contributions to economics, yet is often oversimplified and has unjustly served as a platform for a more general critique of homo economicus.

It has been widely accepted that philosophers of science wrote a "swansong" for positivism during the second half of the 20th century. Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson, major contributors in the field of economic methodology at the time, the argument goes, never reflected the demise. Therefore, positivist roots are still to be found in influential theoretical concepts developed by mainstream economists. Specifically, I present the hypothesis of rational expectations and the theory of efficient markets as two significant outcomes of a "high tide" of positivist thinking in economics. However, quite a large number of scholars currently share the view that the two concepts contributed in a non-negligible manner to the development leading to the financial crisis culminating in 2008 and 2009 and should be replaced by behavioural or other approaches. The article thus asks, in quite a novel way, if the crisis - seen by many as an empirical rejection of both the concepts - can also be seen as a milestone in the development of methodology of economics.

A case study is a valuable instrument for teaching and examining business related disciplines. Application and utilization of case studies have been discussed at length in the academic literature. To a lesser degree, authors have addressed the issue of case production. Case studies can be employed not only for teaching but for research purposes as well. Case study methodology assists solving various research problems in social sciences. This paper provides discussion about steps, limitations and creative approaches, which are associated with writing both teaching and research cases. Through an ongoing analysis of overlaps and differences between teaching and research cases there might be a possibility of transition from a research to teaching case and vice versa.