FINANCE AS IDEOLOGY: THE NORMATIVE AND PERFORMATIVITY STRUCTURE OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS

PETER KRIŠTOFÍK

https://doi.org/10.53465/ER.2644-7185.2025.3.164-176

Abstract: This essay examines financial economics not just as a technical science of analysis, but as a value-influenced discourse composed of philosophical assumptions and learned social values. The subject matter tends to present itself as objective and value-free, even though the dominant models promote a specific view of rationality, efficiency, and maximisation of value. Citing the philosophy of science and critical epistemology, the essay highlights how financial economics is implicated in shaping the very realities it purportedly studies – by providing the tone for expectations of human behaviour, market activity, and the validity of institutions. Through critical readings of standard models such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), and the Black–Scholes model, the paper illustrates how theory can be employed to naturalise existing power relations and institutional structures. Against this, it argues for a more reflexive and pluralistic economic thought that values its normative commitments and is open to alternative modes of thinking.

Keywords: financial economics, ideology, philosophy of science, epistemology, rationality, economic models, performativity

JEL Classification: A13, B41, B50

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Online publication date: 25 September 2025

To cite this article (APA style):

Krištofík, P. (2025). Finance as ideology: The normative and performativity structure of financial economics. Economic Review, 54(3), 164 ─ 176. https://doi.org/10.53465/ER.2644-7185.2025.3.164-176

Publisher: Bratislava University of Economics and Business | EUBA

ISSN 2644-7185 (online)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.