Mesoeconomics or Mezzoeconomics is a neologism used to describe the study of economic arrangements which are not based either on the microeconomics of buying and selling and supply and demand, nor on the macroeconomic reasoning of aggregate totals of demand, but on the importance of the structures under which these forces play out, and how to measure these effects. It dates from the 1980s as several economists began questioning whether there would ever be a bridge between the two main economic paradigms in mainstream economics, without wanting to discard both paradigms in favor of some other basic methodology and paradigm. Mesoeconomics is not a generally recognized term, in contrast with microeconomics or macroeconomics. Several books on this topic including Mann in 2011 and Ng in 1987 help define the scope of mesoeconomics. Scholarly articles on the topic are starting to increase in number with 474 articles and books on the topic in a database search in July, 2014. The term Mesoeconomics is still emerging and should be used with restraint due to unfamiliarity with most audiences. The term comes from "" and "economics", and is constructed in analogy with micro and macro economics.
Mesoeconomic reasoning
Economics focuses on measurable ways of describing social behavior. In orthodox neoclassical synthesis economics, there are two main kinds of recognized economic thinking – micro-economics, which focuses on the action of individual buyers and sellers responding to signals sent by price to set production and distribution of effort, and macroeconomics, which focuses on how whole economies go through cycles of activity, and how different large aggregate sectors relate to each other. Mesoeconomic thinking argues that there are important structures which are not reflected in price signals and supply and demand curves, nor in the large economic measures of inflation, Gross Domestic Product, the unemployment rate, and other measures of aggregate demand and savings. The argument is that the intermediate scale creates effects which need to be described using different measurements, mathematical formalisms and ideas.
Criticisms of mesoeconomics
While many economists using the term use game theory and evolutionary economic concepts, the converse is not recognized to be the case: there are many who dispute the need for a meso scale theory of economics, arguing instead that rational expectations at infinity can appropriately model price strategies. Notable examples of this line of thinking include Robert J. Barro and Thomas Schelling.
Niclas Andersson – Associated with analysis of the construction sector using the mesoeconomics of sectors.
Kurt Dopfer – Argues that the failure to link micro and macro economics shows that there is a need for a meso level of economic thinking based on evolutionary concepts.
Richard Parker – Historian of economics who has been a proponent of the need for a mesoeconomic scale in association with Stuart Holland.
