Secrets Hidden by Two-Dimensionality: The Economy as a Hydraulic Machine
MODEL: THE THIRD DIMENSION OF SCIENCE, pp. 369-401, S. de Chadarevian and N. Hopwood, eds., Standford University Press, 2004
Posted: 18 Jul 2009
Date Written: 2004
Abstract
A long-standing tradition presents economic activity in terms of the flow of fluids. This metaphor lies behind a small but influential practice of hydraulic modelling in economics. Yet turning the metaphor into a three-dimensional hydraulic model of the economic system entails making numerous and detailed commitments about the analogy between hydraulics and the economy. The most famous 3-D model in economics is probably the Phillips machine, the central object of this paper.
Keywords: metaphor, analogy, model, Phillips machine
JEL Classification: B22, B00
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation