Lynne Chester

“In the US, not only did the rise of postwar Neoclassicism represent the consolidation of a particular ‘triumvirate’ in economics—mathematics, formalism, and physics envy (Bateman 1998), but it also replaced an important interwar pluralism[26] that allowed for more than one single approach in economics to co-exist with certain prestige and influence.[27] Amongst the reasons for such a shift, historians of economic thought expose a complex story that involves changes in the epistemology, methodology, and sociology of the economics discipline (Morgan & Rutherford 1998). For the US, it involved inter alia a change in how mathematics began to dominate economics scholarship, and particularly how mathematical formalism began to be closely associated with the concept of scientific neutrality, objectivity, and universal applicability (Furner 1975). This led to an expansion of method-oriented analyses, reinforced by the adoption of econometrics and statistical analysis in economics.”
― Lynne Chester, Heterodox Economics: Legacy and Prospects