Background
De MARCHI, Neil Barry was born in 1939 in Katanning, Western Australia.
De MARCHI, Neil Barry was born in 1939 in Katanning, Western Australia.
Bachelor of Economics University Western Australia, 1960. Bachelor of Philosophy University Oxford, 1964. Doctor of Philosophy American National University, 1970.
Lector, Monash University, Victoria, Australia, 1964-1967. Assistant Professor, Association Professor, Duke University, 1971-1976,
1977-1986. Visiting Reader, University Western Australia, 1973.
Association Professor, University Amsterdam, 1976-1977.
Adjunct-Director, Economics Research, Algemene Bank Nederland, Amsterdam, 1980-1983. Professor of Economics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America, since 1986.
Company-editor, History of Political Economy,
1971—. Editor, Algemene Bank Nederland Bank Economics Rev, 1980-1983.
Editorial Board, Economics and Philosophy,
1984—.
My research and writing reflects a continuing interest in the history of economics and its methodology and in economic policy. All of it is motivated in one way or another by certain questions about the nature and uses of economic inquiry, viewed in some particular historical context. Some questions are taken from the philosophy of science and use the history of economics as test material: may we reinterpret classical economic theory in a Popperian manner?.
What can we learn from Kuhn about why the marginal revolution didn’t occur earlier in England?. Does commitment to a well-defined research programme adequately explain economists’ reluctance to give up theory in the face of untoward empirical findings?. Etcetera. In large part, however, I have looked at the actual practices of economics — how they go about the business of getting warrantable beliefs out of their enquiries.
This motivated my early interest
in Ricardo and Mill. lieutenant should issue soon in separate studies of Keynes (his ‘moments of transition’) and of Friedman. Currently I am exploring the rise and role of econometrics.
The third of my triad of interests is economic policy, especially domestic and international macroeconomic and financial policy, and energy policy. This interest has taken two forms: studies of United States antiinflation and energy policy in the 1970s. And hands-on involvement in macroeconomic assessment for an international commercial bank.
Besides middlebrow analysis of policy options, the issues that concern me here are how macroeconomic explanations are derived. How economic analysis engages policy-makers. How economists have become committed to their own stories.
And how they attempt to persuade others