The Binding Force of Economics

Abstract

A discipline is bound by some combination of a shared subject matter, shared theory, and shared technique. Yet modern economics is seemingly without limit to its domain. As a discipline without a shared subject matter, what is the binding force of economics today? We combine topic modeling and text analysis to analyze different approaches to inquiry within the discipline of economics. We find that the importance of theory has declined as economics has increasingly become defined by its empirical techniques. We question whether this trajectory is stable in the long run as the binding force of the discipline.