methodology of economics

Roger E. Backhouse
From The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition, 2008
Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume
Back to top

Abstract

The methodology of economics concerns the principles underlying economic argumentation. Though systematic reflections on the subject go back at least to the 19th century, the methodology of economics emerged as a recognizable field, at the boundaries of economics, philosophy and science studies, only in the 1980s. This article outlines the way the field developed and its current position.
Back to top

Keywords

assumptions controversy; behavioural economics; Cairnes, J. E.; causality; conventionalism; data mining; economics, definition of; experimental economics; explanation; falsificationism; Friedman, M.; German Historical School; heterodox economics; history of economic thought; ideology; individualism versus holism; instrumentalism; Jevons, W. S.; Keynes, J. N.; Koopmans, T. C.; Kuhn, T.; Lakatos, I.; Leslie, T. E. C.; measurement theory; Menger, C.; Mill, J. S.; models; operationalism; paradigms; philosophy and economics; pluralism in economics; Popper, K.; positive economics; positivism; postmodernism; Robbins, L, C.; stylized facts; theory appraisal
Back to top

Article

Back to top

How to cite this article

Backhouse, Roger E. "methodology of economics." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 19 May 2013 <http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_M000393> doi:10.1057/9780230226203.1093

Download Citation:

as RIS | as text | as CSV | as BibTex