What is the correct concept behind measures of inflation? Does
money cause business activity or is it the other way around? Shall
we stimulate growth by raising aggregate demand or rather by
lowering taxes and thereby providing incentives to produce?
Policy-relevant questions such as these are of immediate and
obvious importance to the welfare of societies. The standard
approach in dealing with them is to build a model, based on
economic theory, answer the question for the model world and then
apply the results to economic phenomena outside. Data come in, if
at all, only in testing a limited number of the model's
consequences. Despite some critical voices, economic methodology
too has by and large subscribed to a "theory first" approach to
applied economics.
Error in Economics systematically develops an alternative to the
theory-based orthodoxy. It places the methodical study of evidence
at the centre of the scientific enterprise and thus provides a
foundation for a methodology of evidence-based economics. But the
book does not stop at the truism that claims should be based on the
best available evidence. Rather, detailed studies in the areas of
measurement, causal inference and policy analysis show what it
means for a claim to be evidence-based in the context of a concrete
case. The examples discussed concern topics as diverse as consumer
price indices, radio spectrum auctions, the transmission mechanism,
natural experiments on minimum wages and the evaluation of
counterfactuals for policy.
Error in Economics is essential reading for economic
methodologists, philosophers of science and anyone interested in
how claims about socio-economic matters are validated.
General
Imprint: |
Routledge
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Series: |
Routledge INEM Advances in Economic Methodology |
Release date: |
February 2010 |
First published: |
2008 |
Authors: |
Julian Reiss
|
Dimensions: |
234 x 156 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
248 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-415-57972-8 |
Categories: |
Books >
Business & Economics >
Economics >
Economic theory & philosophy
|
LSN: |
0-415-57972-4 |
Barcode: |
9780415579728 |
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