Economics/Tutorials
Some footnotes for economists
Economics as a science
Whether economics is a science is a question that would appear to a layman to economics to be esoteric and semantic, but it is of considerable interest to its professionals. It was claimed to be a science by John Stuart Mill, [1] - a claim that was later challenged by Lionel Robbins [2] and critically examined by Paul Samuelson [3]. It has been pointed out that many economic theorems do not satisfy Karl Popper’s criterion that, for a proposition to be considered scientific, it must be falsifiable [4]. The economic theory of utility, for example, yields tools that can be used in economic analysis rather than testable propositions. However, such tools can be used in the scientific analysis of economic activity, just as Euclid’s theorems can be used in the scientific analysis of physical phenomena. To the extent that the analysis yields testable propositions, it can nevertheless be considered scientific. But critics have claimed that the propositions of theoretical economics are seldom put to the test, and that even when the are, academic economists are apt to continue to put forward propositions that fail (The survival of the Hecksher-Ohlin theorem in face of Leontief's Paradox has been cited as an example)
Normative economics
Normative economics is commonly defined as the study of “what ought to be” in contrast to the study of “what is” . The term was put forward in a book by John Neville Keynes [5] and drawn to the attention of the economics profession by Milton Friedman[6]. In most people’s minds there is a normative background to many branches of economics. The results of research on poverty, inequality and unemployment, for example, are usually presented in the tacit or explicit context of their undesireability. That has led to attempts to classify certain categories of economic theory as normative (welfare economics is a common example) and to divide the body of economic theory into normative and positive categories. But none of the theorems of welfare economics embodies any normative postulate: it is left to the user to attach one if he wishes. The fact that many of its users do so does not make the theorems themselves normative. The term “normative” cannot legitimately be applied to a particular category of economic theory: it can only be applied to the purposes for which economic theory is used.
References
- ↑ John Stuart Mill "On the Definition of Political Economy and the Method of Investigation Proper To It" in Unsettled Questions of Political Economy Essay 5 p86 Baloch Books Kitchener 2000
- ↑ Lionel Robbins An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science Macmillan 1935
- ↑ Paul Samuelson Foundations of Economic Analysis Harvard University Press 1947
- ↑ Karl Popper The Logic of Scientific Discovery Routledge 1959
- ↑ John Keynes The Scope and Method of Political Economy Chapter 2 Batoche Books Kitchener 1999
- ↑ Milton Friedman Essays in Positive Economics University of Chicago Press 1953