Choice and the Substantivist/Formalist Debate: A Formal Presentation of Three Substantivist Criticisms

Abstract

This chapter will address (only) one issue from the 1960s substantivist/formalist debate, the treatment of choice. The substantivists rejected the economic universality of the neoclassical axioms of choice under scarcity and the isolated and selfish nature of the choice process. A common formalist response was that their model based on these axioms could be modified to include whatever specific conditions economic choice was being made under. This chapter rejects that claim, based on a consideration not included in the debate. It is argued that the mathematical structure of the standard formal neoclassical model prevents it from incorporating the substantivist criticisms, and that to modify it in accord with these criticisms would necessarily result in a model that is outside the neoclassical approach to economic decision-making.

Citation

Elardo, J.A. and Campbell, A. (2006), "Choice and the Substantivist/Formalist Debate: A Formal Presentation of Three Substantivist Criticisms", Wood, D.C. (Ed.) Choice in Economic Contexts (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 267-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(06)25012-1