Institutional Economics and Feminist Economics Essay

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Differences and Similarities between Institutional Economics and Feminist Economics
Economics is a broad and diverse subject. Numerous scholars have narrowed their knowledge to explain only one discipline on the topic. However, the text, Rethinking Economics: An Introduction to Pluralist Economics provides a wide scope and access to the nine different approaches to economics, including institutional and feminist economics. Thorstein Veblen dedicated his life and career to criticizing capitalism by researching and offering insights to economics and sociology. Using Thorstein Veblen’s Essays in Our Changing Order, The Place of Science in Modern Civilization, Vivienne Brown’s The Economy as Text and Rethinking Economics: An Introduction to Pluralist Economics, this essay seeks to highlight and explain two ways in which institutional and feminist economics are different and similar, as well as their significance in the study of economics.
Epistemological Differences
Institutional economics is an approach driven by an object compared to the others that may be inspired by theory and methods. This research program attempts to understand social institutions and their implications for the economy (Hodgson 47). Therefore, the primary responsibility of institutional economists is to determine the complexities associated with concrete time-space-bound phenomena. What this means is that this framework intends to describe economics in a more general degree in the form of the theoretical paradigms. Then, the results of the approach are evaluated not according to the explanations of the apparent truth, as in the general theories of economics, but line with its practical value for understanding and influencing real-life phenomena via institutional design, regulations, and policy intervention. Furthermore, Fischer et al. also write that this approach mainly engages in relevant scientific practices that try to immerse itself, to a particular capacity, to the topic that it wishes to understand (88). It does this by reconstructing the representations and experiences of subjects involved and participants via archival analysis, interviews, and role play.
Feminist economics answers the primary question as to the findings that should be researched and discussed more in-depth and closely. Since the approach deals with the relationship between gender and economics, it describes the results of whether sex should be considered the central consideration of understanding the economic discipline of a nation. Therefore, Waller relates this notion to the Veblenian dichotomy saying that feminist economics highlights the situation of knowledge on the issue of economics and the idea of power relations in science production (218). One term used in the epistemological representation of the approach is situated knowledge, where the analyst is often rooted in specific contexts of history, culture, and economy. These grounds affect the researcher's preferences, interests, scientific results, and his or her points of view. In consequence, the gender of the analyst is significant as it impacts the nature of their research questions, methodologies, and findings. This...