Weber's economic sociology is essentially historical and institutional. It attempts to establish the conditions within which the market economy of modern capitalism can exist, but it does not deal with the principles by which such an economy actually operates. The latter is, of course, the task of economics in the conventional sense: to show the determinants of prices, the quantities of goods produced and services offered, as well as their dynamics and distributions. In this respect Weber represents the split between the German historical economics of his day and the classical and neoclassical economics found outside Germany.

Even today, conventional economics needs the aid of a sociological approach. For current economics, despite its relevance to practical matters and the technical sophistication of its apparatus, is nevertheless far from being able to provide satisfactory answers to its own problems (Leontieff, 1982). It is particularly weak on the dynamic issues of modern capitalism: on the causes of economic growth and downturn, on the fundamental reasons for the business cycle, and especially on the issues of economic inequality that are at the focus of much policy discussion. The failure of conventional economics is one reason for the renewed popularity of Marxist economics, even though Marxism itself has a less than impressive track record of real-world prediction. The parallel is not surprising, in that Marxist and conventional neoclassical economics are intellectual cousins.