Routledge Handbook of Macroeconomic Methodology

1 Methodological individualism and macroeconomics

Andy Denis

DOI: 10.4324/9781315745992-3

Introduction

Macroeconomics is easily defined as the study of the economy as a whole, in distinction from microeconomics, the study of activity in individual markets. Methodological individualism (MI) is less easily identified. It is often invoked as a fundamental description of the methodology of both neoclassical and some alternative paradigms within economics. However, the methodologies of those to whom the theoretical practice of MI is ascribed vary widely (Hodgson 2007) and, indeed, differ profoundly on the status of the individual economic agent, some adopting a more holistic and some a more reductionist standpoint. MI is generally stated to be ...