EPISTEMOLOGY, AXIOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY IN ECONOMICS - THE CASE OF THE COBB-DOUGLAS FUNCTION

The aim of this article is the identification of axiological and ideological consequences for economic models and theories of a seemingly neutral, motivated by formal mathematical elegance, assumption of Cobb-Douglas production function. According to methodological recommendations given by M. Friedman, which have dominated contemporary orthodox economics, assumptions are not subject to discussion and assessment. Such a methodological attitude makes axiological and ideological content of economic theories escape identification and assessment. Due to a lack of decisive, clear empirical verification (falsification in particular) of economic models and theories, which in Friedman's view was to be the criterion of their acceptance, this methodological attitude poses the risk that false and ideology-burdened ideas will remain in, and even dominate, the scientific debate. Past methodological debates, in particular related to production functions, have remained unresolved and eventually have been given up. The present absence of a meaningful methodological reflection and skepticism and criticism related to some models and theories makes it difficult to put in question formally elegant but possibly false and ideology-burdened economic ideas. The identification and discussion of the ideological consequences - and probably origins - of the assumption of Cobb-Douglas production function is a contribution to the methodological debate, and an incentive to revive it is a broader aim of the article.