Post Autistic Economics: A Paradigm Shift in Economic Thought

"Economics must become less autistic and more realistic," declare the revolutionaries of modern economic thought. While this provocative comparison may initially seem controversial, post autistic economics (PAE) represents a significant movement challenging the orthodoxies of mainstream economics.

Post autistic economics emerged around the turn of the 21st century as a rebellion against the increasingly mathematical, abstract, and disconnected nature of mainstream economics. The movement began in France, where economics students published the "Petition of the Economics Students" in 2000, expressing concern about the state of economics education and research. They argued that economics had become increasingly detached from reality, overly focused on mathematical formalism, and dismissive of alternative perspectives, economic history, and other social sciences.

The Historical Context

The critique underlying post autistic economics was not entirely new. Heterodox economists including Marxists, institutionalists, and ecological economists had long criticized mainstream economics for various reasons. However, the PAE movement gained momentum when these critiques were amplified by students and a handful of prominent economists who had previously worked within the mainstream tradition.

The "autistic" comparison emerged from students' frustration with what they saw as economics' inability to communicate with other disciplines and relate to real-world problems. Like autism in a medical context, they argued, mainstream economics was characterized by:

• A self-contained world with its own internal logic and language
• Limited connection to outside realities
• Resistance to incorporating different perspectives
• An overreliance on formal models that bore little relation to actual economic behavior

The French students' petition quickly gained support, eventually leading to similar movements in other countries and the establishment of the Post-Autistic Economics Network in 2001, which fostered dialogue among concerned economists, students, and interested citizens worldwide.

Core Principles of Post Autistic Economics

While PAE encompasses diverse viewpoints, several key principles unite its proponents:

1. Pluralism in Methodology: PAE advocates for methodological diversity, arguing that economics should embrace not just mathematical modeling but also historical analysis, case studies, experimental approaches, qualitative research, and computational methods. Different economic questions may require different methodological approaches.
2. Empirical Relevance: Economic theories should be evaluated based on their ability to explain real-world phenomena rather than their mathematical elegance or internal consistency. Models must be tested against empirical evidence rather than accepted as articles of faith.
3. Interdisciplinary Dialogue: Economics should engage with sociology, psychology, political science, anthropology, and other disciplines to develop a more comprehensive understanding of economic phenomena. Insights from behavioral economics, institutional economics, and ecological economics demonstrate the value of such cross-fertilization.
4. Economic Education Reform: Economics curricula should present multiple perspectives on economic questions, include economic history, and foster critical thinking about assumptions and methodologies. Students should be trained to evaluate economic theories rather than simply to apply received wisdom.
5. Real-World Application: Economics should address pressing global challenges such as inequality, climate change, financial instability, and sustainable development. The discipline has practical responsibilities beyond the development of abstract theory.
6. Skepticism Toward Economic Reductionism: PAE questions the reduction of complex human behaviors to simplistic utility maximization, highlighting the importance of culture, institutions, psychology, social norms, and power structures in shaping economic outcomes.

Key Figures and Contributions

While post autistic economics is a movement rather than a "school" with a single founder, several figures have made significant contributions:

Steve Keen: An Australian economist whose work debunks many orthodox economic theories, Keen critiques mainstream macroeconomics and finance. His book "Debunking Economics" systematically exposes flaws in conventional economic theory while offering alternative approaches.

Edward Fullbrook: Founder of the Post Autistic Economics Network and editor of "A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics," Fullbrook has been instrumental in organizing international dialogue around economics reform.

Thomas Palley: An American economist whose work spans mainstream and heterodox traditions, Palley advocates for a progressive economics that addresses inequality, financial instability, and unemployment.

Anwar Shaikh: His book "Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises" presents a comprehensive alternative to neoclassical economics, grounding economic theory in empirical patterns while retaining explanatory power.

Herman Daly: As an ecological economist, Daly challenges the growth-centric paradigm of mainstream economics and argues for sustainable development within planetary boundaries.

Institutional Developments

The post autistic economics movement has influenced institutional economics in several ways:

University programs have emerged that explicitly embrace pluralist approaches to economics. The University of Missouri-Kansas City, with its focus on institutional economics, and the University of Greenwich, housing what was once the "Post-Autistic Economics Review," exemplify this shift. The Maastricht University's "School of Business and Economics" includes pluralist approaches in its curriculum.

Professional organizations like the International Association for Islamic Economics, the Association for Heterodox Economics, and the International Network for Economic Method have gained prominence, providing platforms for economists working outside the mainstream.

Peer-reviewed journals such as the "Real-World Economics Review," "Journal of Economic Issues," and "Development and Change" publish research aligned with post autistic economics principles.

These developments represent a gradual shift in the institutional landscape, though mainstream economics departments still largely dominate the field in prestigious universities worldwide.

Contemporary Relevance

Post autistic economics has become increasingly relevant in addressing contemporary economic challenges:

Financial Crises: The 2008 financial crisis revealed significant limitations in mainstream economic models' ability to predict or explain such events. PAE proponents argue that this failure resulted from economics' neglect of financial instability, asymmetric information, behavioral psychology, and power dynamics all key elements of their perspective.

Inequality: The dramatic rise in economic inequality over recent decades has challenged models suggesting that markets naturally lead to optimal outcomes. Post autistic economics' emphasis on distributional issues, historical analysis, and institutional factors provides valuable insights into this phenomenon.

Climate Change: Environmental crises have exposed limitations in how mainstream economics conceptualizes the economy-environment relationship. Ecological economists, integral to the PAE movement, argue for fundamental rethinking of growth, consumption, and sustainability.

COVID-19 Pandemic: The economic fallout from the pandemic highlighted the limitations of equilibrium-based models and demonstrated the value of interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate epidemiology, social psychology, and institutional analysis areas championed by PAE.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation: The economic implications of rapid technological change challenge conventional economic thinking about labor markets, productivity, and growth. PAE approaches, with their openness to examining technology's broader societal impacts, offer valuable frameworks for understanding these transformations.

Critiques and Controversies

Post autistic economics has not been without critics. Mainstream economists sometimes dismiss the movement as lacking rigor or mathematical precision. They argue that formal models provide clarity and logical consistency that looser, more eclectic approaches cannot match.

Some critics question whether "autism" is an appropriate metaphor, noting that it may stigmatize autistic individuals while misrepresenting both autism and mainstream economics. The term remains controversial within the movement itself.

Others challenge whether PAE constitutes a coherent alternative or merely a collection of criticisms without a unified positive program. The diversity within post autistic economics from Marxists to ecological economists to institutionalists sometimes makes it difficult to identify a common theoretical framework.

Defenders of PAE respond that this diversity is a strength, not a weakness, reflecting the complexity of economic reality. They argue that the search for a single unifying paradigm is precisely the error of mainstream economics, and that methodologies appropriate to different questions should be embraced.

Looking Forward

As economic challenges grow more complex in the 21st century, the post autistic economics movement continues to evolve and influence economic discourse. The rise of big data and computational power offers new opportunities for the empirical approaches championed by PAE. The urgency of climate change and growing inequality demands the kind of interdisciplinary engagement PAE proponents advocate.

Perhaps most importantly, a new generation of economists educated with access to diverse perspectives and equipped with new analytical tools seems increasingly open to the methods and questions raised by post autistic economics. While mainstream economics remains dominant in many institutions, the growing recognition of its limitations creates space for alternative approaches.

The ultimate success of post autistic economics may not lie in replacing mainstream economics but in transforming it. If economics becomes more pluralist, empirically grounded, and engaged with real-world problems precisely what the post autistic movement advocates it will have achieved its core objectives regardless of what name it goes by.

In an era of economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and ecological crisis, the calls for an economics that is more realistic, more relevant, and more responsive to human needs have never been more pressing. Post autistic economics, despite its provocative name, represents an important attempt to create just such a discipline.