Economic methodology

Economic methodology is the study of methods, usually scientific method, in relation to economics, including principles underlying economic reasoning. The term 'methodology' is also commonly, though incorrectly, used as an impressive synonym for 'method' or technique.

Many of the general issues that arise in the methodology of the natural sciences also apply to economics. Related or other issues have included:

The definition of economics

• the scope of economics as defined by its methods
• the scientific status of economics
• fundamental principles and operational significance of economic theory
• allegedly fruitful and predictive vs. realistic aspects of simplifying assumptions, such as rational choice and profit maximizing.
• methodological individualism versus holism in economic theory
• the balance of empirical and a priori approaches
• analysis of formalization and exiomatic methods in economics
• limitations on and uses of experimental methods
• analysis of theory and practice in contemporary economics

Economic methodology has gone from periodic reflections of economists on method to a distinct research field in economics since the 1970s. In one direction, it has expanded to the boundaries of philosophy, including the relation of economics to the philosophy of science and to the theory of knowledge. In the context of philosophy and economics, additional subjects are treated as well, including decision theory and moral philosophy/ethics.

Commonly-accepted methods and subjects in economics are described as mainstream economics. Heterodox economics includes other approaches that are in various ways presented as alternatives to or criticisms of mainstream economics.

Notes

• Lawrence A. Boland (1987). "methodology," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 455-56.
• Roger E. Backhouse (2008). "methodology of economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• John Stuart Mill (1844) Essay V, "On the Definition of Political Economy; and on the Method of Investigation Proper to It"in Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy.
• Roger E. Backhouse and Steven Medema (2008). "economics, definition of," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• John Neville Keynes (1891). The Scope and Method of Political Economy.
• Lionel Robbins (1932). An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science.
• Daniel M. Hausman (1992). The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics.
• Edward P. Lazear (2000). "Economic Imperialism," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(1), pp. 99-146.
• John R. Hicks (1939). Value and Capital: An Inquiry into Some Fundamental Principles of Economic Theory.
• Terence W. Hutchison (1938). The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory.
• Paul A. Samuelson (1947). Foundations of Economic Analysis.
• Lawrence A. Boland (2008). "instrumentalism and operationalism," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• Richard G. Lipsey (2008). "positive economics." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. 2nd Edition.
• Milton Friedman (1953). "The Methodology of Positive Economics" in Essays in Positive Economics.
• Paul A. Samuelson (1963). "Problems of Methodology: Discussion," American Economic Review, 53(2) American Economic Review, pp. 231-236.
• Stanley Wong (1973). "The 'F-Twist' and the Methodology of Paul Samuelson," American Economic Review, 63(3) pp. 312-325.
• Lawrence A. Boland (2008). "assumptions controversy," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• Kenneth J. Arrow ([1987] 1989). “Economic theory and the hypothesis of rationality," in The New Palgrave: Utility and Probability, pp. 25-39.
• Shaun Hargreaves Heap (2008). "economic man," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• Kaushik Basu "methodological individualism," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• Harold Kincaid (2008). "individualism versus holism," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• Mark Blaug (2007). "The Social Sciences: Economics" (Postwar developments, Methodological considerations in contemporary economics), The New Encyclopædia Britannica, v. 27, pp. 346-47.
• Bruce Caldwell ([1987] 2008). "positivism," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• Ludwig von Mises (1949). Human Action.
• Gerard Debreu (1991). "The Mathematization of Economic Theory," American Economic Review, 81(1), pp. 1-7.
• Kenneth J. Arrow (1951). Social Choice and Individual Values.
• Amartya K. Sen, ([1970] 1984). Collective Choice and Social Welfare ISBN 0-444-85127-5.
• Amartya Sen (2008). "social choice," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• C.F. Bastable ([1925] 1987). "experimental methods in economics," i, The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 2, p. 241.
• Vernon L. Smith ([1987] 2008). "experimental methods in economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• Mark Blaug (1992). The Methodology of Economics: Or How Economists Explain, 2nd ed.
• Roger E. Backhouse (2008). "methodology of economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition, pp. 590-91.
• D. Wade Hands (2008). "philosophy and economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition.
• D.M. Hausman (2001). "Economics: Philosophy of," International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, v. 6, pp. 4159-65.
• Frederic S. Lee (2008). "heterodox economics," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition, v. 4, p. 2.