Do economists make markets? On the performativity of economics

摘要

Imagine a theory that is self-realizing: a theory that applies to the world as a result of having been applied to the world, intervening in a way that changes reality in its image. At first sight, such a thought seems rather fanciful. Would such a theory not be true by default? Would it not be as much about itself as about the world? Clearly, the spectre of Berkleyan idealism beckons, with the mind-independence of the "things" in the world being called into question.