Review of Enacting Dismal Science: New Perspectives on the Performativity of Economics, edited by Ivan Boldyrev and Ekaterina Svetlova. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, vii + 206 pp.

Economics, as the volume editors Ivan Boldyrev and Ekaterina Svetlova submit, does not merely describe or explain, but also actively shapes—“performs”—the economy. This is how we may understand the performativity-of-economics thesis: Economists shape markets either directly,through the design of theories and policies based on them;or indirectly, through shaping cognitive infrastructures that economic agents use to make economic calculations, buy,and sell.