Roman Frydman is Professor of Economics at New York University. He was one of the early critics of the Rational Expectations Hypothesis, showing in his 1982 article in the American Economic Review that it suffers from irreparable flaws. In the 1990’s, Frydman collaborated with Andrzej Rapaczynski on a multi-country research and policy project on the post-communist transition in Eastern Europe. Their numerous books and articles are well-known for their breadth and insightful analysis. In recent years, Frydman has worked with Michael Goldberg on a new approach to macroeconomic analysis that jettisons the Rational Expectations Hypothesis, and recognizes that, in making decisions, rational individuals must cope with imperfect knowledge. They presented their approach in the pathbreaking book Imperfect Knowledge Economics, published by Princeton University Press in 2007. In their latest book, Beyond Mechanical Markets (also published by Princeton University Press, in 2011), Frydman and Goldberg apply and extend Imperfect Knowledge Economics to assess the causes of the global financial crisis, as well as propose a new policy framework aimed at rectifying systemic failures.
