The history of economic thought as a living laboratory

McCaffrey, Matthew C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2234-5240, Salerno, Joseph T ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9801-4448 and Dorobat, Carmen Elena ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3343-6786 (2025) The history of economic thought as a living laboratory. Cambridge Journal of Economics. ISSN 0309-166X

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Abstract

We propose a novel and constructive way to conceptualise the history of economic thought and appreciate its value within economics more broadly. Drawing on the work of economists spanning nearly a century, we explore the idea of the history of economic thought as a living laboratory of theorising. It is living in that it is a persistently relevant method of doing economic theory, as opposed to a separable field or even a dead branch of economics. It is a laboratory in that it provides a constrained space for examining, comparing, critiquing, combining, and developing theories. Following an initial explanation, we explore the roots of this conceptualisation in the works of some twentieth-century economists. We then illustrate it using the example of the development of neo-Wicksellian macroeconomics. We conclude with a discussion of the advantages and limitations of the living laboratory approach.