Revista OEconomica

Raluca-Georgiana ROBU, Maria GHEORGHE (NIŢU), Valentin COJANU, Alexia-Maria POPESCU - Between Opportunity and Dependency: The Evolution of Romania’s Trade with Asian Economies [Între oportunitate şi dependenţă: evoluţia comerţului României cu economiile asiatice]

Narciz BĂLĂŞOIU, Octavian-Dragomir JORA, Răzvan Marian PÎRCĂLĂBESCU - Romania’s Positioning and Room for Manoeuvre: The Dilemmas of Peripheral Adaptation in the New Indo-Pacific [Poziţionarea şi marjele de manevră ale României: dilemele adaptării periferice în noul Indo-Pacific]

Mădălina JURUBIțĂ - Redefining EU Trade Policy for an Age of Geoeconomic Rivalry: Strategic Autonomy, Security, and Resilience

Geicun MUSTAFA - Islamophobia as an Informal Trade Barrier: Reputational Risk and the Political Economy of Deglobalization

Hesam JEBELI-BAKHT-ARA - Racialized Capitalism and Economic Discrimination: The Case of Ethnic Labour Segmentation in Contemporary Europe

Articles on Issue Theme

Andrei SANDU

Durham University

This essay will first outline the case for microfoundations, before presenting the limitations which undermine both the representative-agent model as a means of reduction and the individualist claim that microfoundations are necessary for explanation of economic aggregates. I conclude that the desire for microfoundations is justifiable in certain contexts, but that demanding them as a validator of macroeconomics demonstrates too narrow a conception of the purposes of social science. Though a sound understanding of microeconomics is necessary for a sound understanding of the economy, macroeconomics deserves a greater degree of ontological independence than it is granted by individualists.

ŒCONOMICA no. 3-4/2016

Keywords: microfoundations, macroeconomics, representative-agent model, individualism

JEL: B41, D00, E00

Microeconomic Foundations for Macroeconomic Phenomena. A Problem of Ontological (In)Dependence [Fundaţii microeconomice ale fenomenelor macroeconomice. O problemă de (in)dependenţă ontologică]

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