Should We Abandon Classical Economics? Dr. Ken Blawatt Lecture on Marconomics

Friday, March 10, 2017, 12:30–2 pm, ABC 1427

The School of Business is pleased to host the second 2017 Research Seminar presented by Dr. Ken R. Blawatt, UFV School of Business.

Economics is now under some pressure to improve, if not change its premise. In the last few decades noteworthy economists, leading academics and business leaders worldwide, have expressed serious reservations about classical economics as a discipline and practice. Lester Thurow, former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management has long been critical of the discipline. Robert Nelson likens it to a religion while Philip J. Kotler, widely viewed as the Father of Modern Marketing believes it should be replaced.

Fortunately, a new trend is emerging that offers a positive direction for the discipline; one that applies economics from a human perspective. This more realistic approach, Behavioural Economics, incorporates human motivations and values. It argues that personal issues or cognitive biases guide economic activity, rather than assumptive factors about demand, equilibrium and trade functions.

Dr. Blawatt’s research addresses the foregoing and moves the discussion even deeper into human behavior. In his new book, Marconomics, he argues that a new paradigm guides economic affairs. Based on empirical evidence it determines that an economy is guided by expectations and perceptions, not price and volume, and is arranged in three tiers; an entrepreneurial economy, a managed economy and a mass marketing or declining economy.

The presentation will be followed by a Q+A session. Please RSVP to busevents@ufv.ca by Friday, March 3, 2017.