He also contrasts the theoretical vacuity of micro-economics with the extensive body econometrics research, which has produced empirically informative studies despite, not because of, its putative foundations in micro-economics. That point alone is fatal to the scientific claims of micro-economics as a theory of consumers' - or more exactly (and as Fine says), buyers' - behaviour. The knock-down critical response to neoclassical micro-economics is of course to develop more realistic, evidence-based explanations of economic behaviour, economic institutions and their effects, and as Fine implies, to analyse non-market institutions on their own terms and not just assimilate them to "imperfect" markets. [Extracted from the article]