Markowitz’s math-heavy paper was alien to 1950s academic finance culture

Evidence

Markowitz’s 1952 paper in the journal of Finance describing his portfolioselection method (though not the detail of the critical line algorithm) was later to be seen as the “harbinger” of the “new” finance, of “the mathematical and model-building revolution."" It certainly stood out: “No other article in the issue [of the journal of Finance] that carried Markowitz’s paper contains a single equation.” (Bernstein 1992, p. 42) Indeed, Markowitz’s contribution to the Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, with its matrix algebra and its careful analysis of the mathematical properties of the critical line algorithm, inhabited an epistemic culture quite different from that traditional in the academic study of finance: essentially the culture of applied mathematics. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 217

Categorization

• XREF: Establishes the ‘epistemic culture’ framing central to the performativity thesis — connects to Callon’s/MacKenzie’s broader sociology of economic knowledge. — connects to: Finance journals published almost no theoretical or mathematical work until the late 1950s — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 161; Mathematical economics displaced descriptive institutional study of finance in the US — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 304; Financial economics emerged as a mathematical discipline only from the 1960s — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 33 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Financial economics emerged as a mathematical discipline only from the 1960s #corroborates (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 33
• Wall Street lacked prestige in elite business schools during the early 1950s #corroborates (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 200
• Mathematical economics displaced descriptive institutional study of finance in the US #complicates (0.72) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 304