How-possibly explanations in economics: anything goes?

Till Grüne-Yanoff and Philippe Verreault-Julien

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The recent literature on economic models has rejected the traditional requirement that their epistemic value necessary depended on them offering actual explanations of phenomena. Contributors to that literature have argued that many models do not aim at providing how-actually explanations, but instead how-possibly explanations. However, how to assess the epistemic value of HPEs remains an open question. We present a programmatic approach to answering it. We first introduce a conceptual framework that distinguishes how-actually explanations from how-possibly explanations and that further differentiates between epistemic and objective how-possibly explanations. Secondly, we show how that framework can be used for methodological appraisal as well as for understanding methodological controversies.

Keywords: epistemic; explanation; how-possibly; modal; models; possibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B40 B41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2021-01-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Journal of Economic Methodology, 20, January, 2021, 28(1), pp. 114 - 123. ISSN: 1350-178X

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:108622

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