applied theory makeovers

[Ran Spiegler]

Dear all,

I thought members of this forum might find some interest in a short "meta" piece of mine, called "Applied Theory Makeovers":

https://05f571a4-a44b-4f0b-9345-e7a569b0109b.filesusr.com/ugd/4871e3_d448dea7acd345d2ac93186b1d2c3438.pdf

Abstract: I argue that economists' distinction between "pure" and "applied" economic theory is often based on papers' stylistic markers rather than their methodology or scope. I use Piccione and Spiegler (2012) to illustrate this point. I first present its original, "pure style" version. I then offer several "applied style" modifications, and speculate how audiences would react to the various versions.

The paper originated from a conference called "perspectives on economic theory" that took place at LSE last June (Christopher Sandmann wrote about it in his blog: https://theholdupproblem.com/2025/06/12/in-search-of-economics-reflections-from-lses-perspectives-on-economic-theory-conference/). I believe that other papers from that event will be collected in an issue of Economica at some point. My own piece develops themes that appear in my 2024 book of essays "The Curious Culture of Economic Theory" (open access link: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5760/The-Curious-Culture-of-Economic-Theory).

In case you're interested,

Rani

Ran Spiegler

School of Economics, Tel Aviv University

&

Department of Economics, University College London

URL: https://www.ranspiegler.sites.tau.ac.il/ 

New book: The Curious Culture of Economic Theory (MIT Press)

Social media book pages: X @rani_spiegler, Bluesky @rani-spiegler.bsky.social