Magdalena Malecka

I am an Associate Professor in Philosophy of Science and Techology and Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant “Encoded Knowledge: Epistemology of Computer Technology in Modern Economics” (ENCODED). ENCODED puts the focus on computer technology at the center of the philosophical analyses of economics to achieve substantial breakthroughs in understanding modern economics and move debates in philosophy of economics beyond the state of the art. 

Modern economics has become an influential scientific discipline, but its ability to explain, predict, and provide solutions to socioeconomic problems has been questioned. While many discussions focus on flaws, biases and possible improvements of the tools typically used in economic research - models, experiments, econometric techniques – they overlook the fact that these tools are employed by relying on computer technologies, such as software, simulations, and data structures. Can these technologies be treated merely as an aid to the research? Or, on the contrary, is the role of computer technology transformative or even central for modern economics’ methods and agenda? Is the knowledge that modern economics produces substantively shaped by computer technology? 

Throughout the modern period, initiated after WWII and lasting until today, economics has relied on developments in computer technology across many approaches in theoretical and empirical research. Various computer technologies – from Monte Carlo simulations to symbolic artificial intelligence - have permeated into most research practices – from theorizing, through modelling to empirical work. Yet we still have not understood if they have substantially transformed research in modern economics and to what effect. The ambition of ENCODED is to address this gap. The project analyzes how and to which extent computer technology 1) has had an effect on what is being investigated in modern economics, 2) has affected economists’ theorizing and choices of empirical methods, and how 3) values embedded in this technology have influenced knowledge produced in modern economics. 

ENCODED aims to fill a major lacuna in the philosophical analysis of economics. Most philosophers of economics have provided analyses of the epistemological status of economics either omitting the role that computer technology has historically had in economics, or under the implicit assumption that the use of computer technology in economic research was epistemically neutral or negligible. The project challenges this assumption and opens up an unexplored line of investigation in philosophy of economics by switching the focus of analysis to the role of computer technology in economic research. ENCODED has an ambition to create an intellectual shift in how economics is understood and studied. 

ENCODED provides an innovative interdisciplinary philosophical approach based on insights from philosophy of science, history of economics, science and technology studies, critical studies of data and algorithms. The project advances this philosophical approach by analyzing case studies of research in modern economics. The research team engages with the following research questions: 

How does the knowledge produced within modern economics depend on or is influenced by computer technology, and to what extent?

How and in which way is the knowledge produced within modern economics influenced by values embedded in computer technology?

What are the philosophical implications (epistemological, social, political) of the influence that computer technology has had on the knowledge produced in modern economics?