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"Who is There That Doesn't Calculate?": Homo Economicus as a Measuring Instrument in Non-Market Accounting
- Perspectives on Science
- The MIT Press
- Volume 29, Number 6, November-December 2021
- pp. 842-868
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
Contemporary approaches to "non-market accounting" depend critically on methods of "monetization," i.e., determining prices for goods outside the market. Monetization constitutes a case of economic measurement in a narrow sense that has not yet been analyzed in the literature on measurement in economics. Monetization, I will argue, uses homo economicus—originally created as a model to explain existing prices—as a measuring device, one that generates new prices for goods that are not traded on markets. Homo economicus, though long contested in microeconomics, is thus enjoying a dubious revival in non-market accounting.


