麻豆淫院

Political and ideological barriers can shape the progress of academic disciplines, warns Ivan Boldyrev. In a appearing in the Journal of Economic Literature , the historian of economics at Radboud University explores the complex history of Soviet science and warns that a new Cold War might once again hinder academic progress.

Starting in the 1930s and World War 2, the field of economics research changed greatly. "Prior to the 1930s, economic theory was much less formal," explains Boldyrev. "Then, new publications led to the so-called mathematization of economics: more rigorous models were used to conceptualize the economy."

This academic change encompassed almost all international economics research, except in the Soviet Union where most economists either emigrated or were repressed. As a result, there were few if any notable papers published by Soviet economists in this period.

Ideology over academics

In his paper, Boldyrev explores some of the factors that limited research by Soviet economists.

"The Soviet government valued ideology over academic rigor, and there was a hostility to the direction of Western economics in the 1930s and 1940s. This, in turn, led to censorship on many levels: by the government, trying to keep out Western thought, but also by scholarly institutions, careful to avoid pressure from the government.

"That led to self-censorship, too, as researchers did not feel able to freely write and contribute to the 'new' style of economics research. Academic exchange was severely restricted during this time between Soviet and non-Soviet economists."

Remarkably, some of the Soviet work did contribute greatly to research in non-Soviet economics, Boldyrev explains. However, it wasn't economists, but mathematicians who were mostly able to keep contributing, despite many Cold War obstacles. Soviet mathematics was under less pressure and remained internationally competitive in many fields.

Learning from the past

"Throughout the Soviet regime, formal technical contributions in the fields of mathematics (optimization, games, probability) were applied to various fields of non-Soviet economic theory. And some of the Soviet mathematical work was actually directly inspired by economic applications. Unfortunately, the support and contributions of mathematicians were never enough to outweigh the lack of a free and internationally open research environment."

As Boldyrev explains, understanding the history of economics research and international communication of ideas is crucial to advancing the field.

"Science can only succeed in the right context, by understanding what happened before and learning from that. That's why our students of economics all study the history of the field. It's also important to not repeat the mistakes of the past. The global situation now is not so different from that of the Cold War, and this paper shows in more detail how limiting that can be for academic research."