Drinks at 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start. Food and discussion is provided post Professor Morgan's presentation.

We have heard much talk and even derision about homo economicus. But there are often important aspects of the discussion that are overlooked, such as how the the concept has evolved through time, or how economists have made use of this “Rational Economic Man”. Is Adam Smith’s conceptualization of the economic man different to the one used by Neoclassical economists? How has this economic man evolved with his use in models? What are the implications of his stagnation?

Bring a new depth of knowledge into the economic assumptions and models you use as Professor Morgan discusses these questions and much more, comparing the methods of economists with the gold standard of Science.

Professor Morgan will use her vast experience in the areas of Philosophy and the History of economics to shed light on how economists have discussed their strategies, and how philosophers have labeled and thought about such economic methods.

Join us for a thoughtful and enlightening event that will delve into the details of the models we use in our everyday work, often taking their assumptions and underlying philosophy for granted. 

Mary S. MorganMary Morgan is Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics at the London School of Economics and Vice President (Publications) at the British Academy.

She also holds a professorial appointment at the University of Amsterdam and is a visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her major area of scholarship is the history of economic and econometric ideas. Her recent award winning book, The World in the Model (Cambridge University Press, 2012), considers modelling as a method of enquiry, the imagining and imaging of economic ideas (to consider the way that images emerge and are developed over time to give form, and greater clarity, to economic thinking), model experiments, the uses of simulations and a range of other issues.

Mary has made important contributions to the history of economic thought, especially with regard to the history of econometrics, the historical development of measurement in economics, and the evolution and methodological implications of the use of economic models.