What is orthodoxy in economics? – 01/08/2023 – Bernardo Guimarães

The nomination of Marcio Pochmann for the presidency of the IBGE caused controversy and created debates. One was on heterodoxy and orthodoxy in economics research.

There is a lot of confusion in this debate — which is not surprising, given that the terms orthodox and heterodox have quite different connotations than what they actually mean in academia.

Academic research, in any area, is done in groups. Isolated work has no meaning. It is the set of articles that builds scientific knowledge.

In this set, there are works with different results, leading to conclusions that support different economic policies.

To the general public, it must appear that the divide between orthodox and heterodox is on each side of these debates. For example, the orthodox would defend free trade and government spending cuts, while the heterodox would hold opposing positions.

This is not true. No way.

I, for example, have an article on the negative effects of international trade on countries that export primary products, and another that shows a positive channel for government spending increases on GDP and the economy.

Yet in academia, I am 100% orthodox. Without any doubt.

It is not true that orthodox and heterodox are academics with different positions in these debates. The truth is that there is a group, the so-called orthodox, debating among themselves, and another group (or other groups), the heterodox, in parallel discussions. These are two worlds that barely talk to each other.

Nor is it true that orthodox talk about ancient themes while heterodox are tuned into today’s reality. Research on gender, race, income distribution and the environment, for example, has received great attention from so-called orthodox researchers.

In a one-paragraph summary, at some point, a group of researchers considers that papers with certain methods or hypotheses are not good enough to be published; another group disagrees and continues to employ those methods and hypotheses. Conferences and periodicals for this group then appear. This is the birth of the heterodox group.

Over time, the abyss only grows.

Who is right and who is wrong? There is no way to be certain. There is no deity handing out templates.

However, we know that almost all professors in the economics departments of almost all foreign universities are orthodox. Sheet ever heard of (MIT, Harvard, Chicago, Yale, Stanford, Oxford, London School of Economics…).

We also know that, every year, students from all over Brazil who want to take a master’s degree in economics take a single exam. First placed students can choose to study at any school.

Naturally, among these, there are people with the most varied research interests and political inclinations. But almost all choose so-called Orthodox departments. It has been like this for at least 25 years.
Anyone who wants to dialogue with the scientific community needs to write in a language that everyone understands.

An article on taxation of large fortunes in Colombia will bring important lessons to Brazil, Turkey and Thailand. Therefore, virtually all of the relevant works of the Orthodox group are written in English. Scientific research is done in groups, and there are people from this group all over the world.

In the popular imagination, Brazilian Orthodox has always looked like a bandit. In the dictionary, orthodox is someone who strictly follows established norms. It’s a bad term to designate a large and diverse group of researchers.

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