| Abstract: | This paper searches for the story Thomas Sargent is likely to have told when he was trying to use rational expectations economics in the late-1960s and early 1970s. An argument will be made for his interest in achieving what he would regard as conceptual integrity of the determinism in neoclassical economic theory and the randomness in econometrics. This involves providing a narrative of how he came to the idea of rational expectations and what he had to relinquish to be able to put his initial interpretation of the concept to use. |
