Mainstream Methodology, Financial Markets and Global Political Economy

The experience of financial markets in the global economy isopen to a variety of interpretations, based on different framings,with important consequences for economic policy. Knowledge aboutfinancial markets, and the methodology employed to build it,can be understood in terms of framing. The underlying argumentof the paper is in favour of considering the framing of financialmarkets within an open-system approach, allowing input fromother disciplines, as well as taking account of the real, oftenperformative, implications of (closed-system) mainstream framingby policy-makers. The methodological underpinnings of, and interdependenciesbetween, different framings among theorists, policy-makers,market players and users is explored.