Welcome!
I am Professor of Philosophy and History of Economics at the Institute of Philosophy at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. I am also an external member of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at LMU Munich, an affiliated member of the Center for Higher Education and Science Studies (CHESS) at the University of Zurich, and an affiliated fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University as well as with the URPP 'Equality of Opportunity' at the University of Zurich.
I do research on topics in history and philosophy of economics. Currently, I am particularly interested in the questions of why and how models are transferred across different domains and in which way such model transfers can lead to scientific progress. This project entitled MODEL TRANSFER is funded by an ERC Starting Grant. With a team, I study those questions with a particular focus on model transfer in economics and do so by using a variety of methods from philosophy, sociology, and history of science. I apply traditional approaches - such as case studies - but also quantitative-empirical methods in history and philosophy of the social sciences; I do archival research in my historical research; and I conduct long interviews to get into close contact with scientific practitioners. I have also an active interest in questions around the gender gap in philosophy and closely collaborate with sociologists and psychologists to study them. I serve as a board member of the International Network of Economic Methodology and as a steering committee member of the European Philosophy of Science Association. I am also an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Methodology, a co-editor of the Cambridge Elements series on History of Economics, and the book review editor of the Journal of the History of Economic Thought. Finally, I serve as member of the editorial board of Oeconomia - History, Methodology, Philosophy, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, of the journal Philosophy of the Social Sciences, and of the book series with De Gruyter, History of Philosophy and Science. I find me on @cherfeld.bsky.social and you can find information about our research on MODEL TRANSFER here and here @modeltransfer.bsky.social |
News
- I am thrilled that my book Conversations of Rational Choice is finally coming out with CUP. Stay tuned for ordering copies here.
- We have a couple of newly accepted papers forthcoming on model transfer, the usefulness of network analysis in &HPS generally and for studying model transfer particularly, discussing the specific account of economic models economists such as Itzhak Gilboa, David Schmeidler and colleagues defend, and on the conditions under which economists in the 1950s exchanged tools (and models) with other behavioral sciences. Find details here.
- I have been appointed as editor of the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, alongside Harro Maas, Alexandre Mendes Cunha and Erwin Dekker. Our editorial team will take up the editorship of the journal in mid 2025. I am honored and excited!
- On April 1, 2023 I started my ERC Project 'Model Transfer and Its Challenges in Science: The Case of Economics' at the University of Hannover. Here is a short project description and here is the project website.
- I am excited to have won the Karl-Heinz Hoffmann Prize 2021, which is awarded annually by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Here is the press release and laudatio.
- Here is an interview about some of my work that I did with Scott Scheall, Eduardo Serra and Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak for their Podcast 'Smith and Marx Walk Into A Bar: A History of Economics Podcast'.