Econocentrism is judging another economic
system solely by the values and standards of one's own economic
system. Econocentric individuals judge advocates for other economic systems relative to their own economic
system, especially with concern for underlying supply and demand principles, with or without formalizing the value of intangible assets
like human emotional development or environmental sustainability, and the monolithic implied trustworthiness of market dynamics.
These distinctions and subdivisions among various economic systems serve to define each economists
unique philosophical and academic identity. Econocentrism
may be overt or subtle, and while it is considered a natural proclivity of western democratic and humanitarian values, it has developed a generally negative connotation as a result of the contemporary outcome of globalized neo-liberal and
free-market economic dominance, which has been observed as producing obscene wealth and income inequality, robust destruction of the life supporting planetary ecosystem, and the dismantling of the ability of national political institutions to serve the best interests of their largest constituencies.
The Grove City
College holds a peculiar variation of econocentrism, as its core economic curricula is structured to communicate the theory of
free-market economics as most notably presented by Von Mises. This economic
system and theory is an outlier among other US colleges and universities, which predominantly are econocentrist, to the context of neo-liberal economics.
