From exploratory modeling to technical expertise

Author(s)
Verena Halsmayer
Abstract

Combining concrete policy-oriented modeling strategies of World War II with what was received as traditional neoclassical theory, in 1956 Robert Solow constructed a simple, clean, and smooth-functioning “design” model that served many different purposes. As a working object, it enabled experimentation with utopian long-run equilibrium growth. As an instrument of measurement, it was applied to time-series data. As a prototype, it was supposed to feed into larger-scale econometric models that were, in turn, thought of as technologies for policy advice. Used as a teaching device, Solow’s design became a medium of “spreading the technique” and one of the symbols for neoclassical macroeconomics that soon became associated with MIT.

Organisation(s)
Department of History
Journal
History of Political Economy
Volume
46
Pages
229-251
No. of pages
23
ISSN
0018-2702
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-2716181
Publication date
2014
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
601022 Contemporary history, 502027 Political economy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
History, Economics and Econometrics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/7a2381db-090f-48f8-a5a1-2e798eee6958