Epilogue

The house of economic theory has many mansions. In this book we have considered the structure of four of them. Future generations, no doubt, will witness the building of new additions. Nevertheless, the structures already available provide ample room for adaptation to problems quite different from the ones their original designers had in mind. Those who undertake such re-modelling, however, will be well-advised to be alert to the strengths and limitations of the structures with which they are working. Progress in economic thinking may come as much through the refinement of existing intellectual systems -and through an informed awareness of the properties of the various theoretical systems - as through the formulation of entirely new ones.

While the major `master models' offer a variety of perspectives on the economic process it is important to recall that the pioneers in each of these traditions shared a distinguished attribute. All of them took up their pens in a mood critical of established institutions or patterns of thought. If some oftheir doctrines were later appropriated to justify the status quo, such complacency was alien to the innovators. It was this grand tradition that Keynes had in mind when he once described economics as a 'dangerous science'.