Why economics should be a modest and reasonable science

Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira ()

No 306, Textos para discussão from FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil)

Abstract: Unlike the methodological sciences such as mathematics and decision theory, which use the hypothetical-deductive method and may be fully expressed in complex mathematical models because their only truth criterion is logical consistency, the substantive sciences have as their truth criterion the correspondence to reality, adopt an empirical-deductive method, and are supposed to generalize from and often unreliable regularities and tendencies. Given this assumption, it is very difficult for economists to predict economic behavior, particularly major financial crises.

Date: 2012-02-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-hpe
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Journal Article: Why Economics Should Be a Modest and Reasonable Science (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fgv:eesptd:306

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