Pluralism in Economics sheds new light on the various meanings and consequences of pluralist approaches to the history and methodology of economics. The first part focuses on philosophical and methodological issues. The second part contains six case studies which discuss diverse issues but adopt the pluralistic approach recommended in the first part.The contributors attempt to reconcile two major strands of thinking in economic methodology: the 'rhetoric' of economics as advocated by Deirdre McCloskey and the sociological approach which argues that scientific knowledge can be best analysed in the context of a sociological understanding of the scientific enterprise. The book has been prepared under the auspices of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy and presents new work by leading economists from both Europe and North America.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, economists have invested great resources into using statistical evidence to relate macroeconomic theories to the real world, and many new econometric techniques have been employed. In these two volumes, a distinguished group of economic theorists, econometricians, and economic methodologists examine how evidence has been used and how it should be used to understand the real world. Volume 1 focuses on the contribution of econometric techniques to understanding the macroeconomic world. It covers the use of evidence to understand the business cycle, the operation of monetary policy, and economic growth. A further section offers assessments of the overall impact of recent econometric techniques such as cointegration and unit roots. Volume 2 focuses on the labour market and economic policy, with sections covering the IS-LM model, the labour market, new Keynesian macroeconomics, and the use of macroeconomics in official documents (in both the USA and the EU). These volumes will be valuable to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and practitioners for their clear presentation of opposing perspectives on macroeconomics and how evidence should be used. The chapters are complemented by discussion sections revealing the perspectives of other contributors on the methodological issues raised.

In these two volumes, a group of distinguished economists debate the way in which evidence, in particular econometric evidence, can and should be used to relate macroeconomic theories to the real world. Topics covered include the business cycle, monetary policy, economic growth, the impact of new econometric techniques, the IS-LM model, the labour market, new Keynesian macroeconomics, and the use of macroeconomics in official documents.