Economic methodology is the study of methods, especially the scientific method, in relation to economics, including principles underlying economic reasoning.:Press + button to enlarge small-text links below. • Roger E. Backhouse, 2008. "methodology of economics", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Lawrence A. Boland, 1987. "methodology", The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 455-56. • Daniel M. Hausman, 1989. "Economic Methodology in a Nutshell", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 3(2), pp. 115-127. • Kevin D. Hoover, 1995. "Review Article: Why Does Methodology Matter for Economics?" Economic Journal, 105(430), pp. 715-734. In contemporary English, 'methodology' may reference theoretical or systematic aspects of a method (or several methods). Philosophy and economics also takes up methodology at the intersection of the two subjects.
Scope
General methodological issues include similarities and contrasts to the natural sciences and to other social sciences and, in particular, to: the definition of economics• John Stuart Mill, 1844. "On the Definition of Political Economy; and on the Method of Investigation Proper to It", Essay V, 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. Abstract. • _____. 2009. "Retrospectives: On the Definition of Economics", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(1), pp. 221–33 (close Bookmarks tab) Abstract. the scope of economics as defined by its methodsJohn Neville Keynes, 1891. The Scope and Method of Political Economy. Annotated chapter links. 4th ed., 1917 . Full Contents. fundamental principles and operational significance of economic theory• 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. • Martin Hollis and Edward J. Nell, 1975. Rational Economic Man, ch. 3,4,5 and 7. Cambridge University Press. • Paul A. Samuelson, 1947. Foundations of Economic Analysis. • Richard G. Lipsey, 2008. "positive economics". The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Lawrence A. Boland, 2008. "instrumentalism and operationalism", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • _____, 2003. The Foundations of Economic Method, 2nd Edition. Description and chapter links. methodological individualism versus holism in economics• Kaushik Basu, 2008. "methodological individualism", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Edward J. Nell, 1998. General Theory of Transformational Growth, Part I. Cambridge University Press. • Harold Kincaid, 2008. "individualism versus holism", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • F.A. Hayek, 1948. Individualism and Economic Order. Chapter-preview links. • George J. Stigler and Paul A. Samuelson, 1963. "A Dialogue on the Proper Economic Role of the State." Selected Papers, No. 7. University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. • James M. Buchanan, 1990. "The Domain of Constitutional Economics", Constitutional Political Economy, 1(1), pp. 1-18, adapted as "Constitutional Political Economy" in C. K. Rowley and F. Schneider, ed., 2004, The Encyclopedia of Public Choice, v. 2, pp. 60-67. • Kenneth J. Arrow, 1994. "Methodological Individualism and Social Knowledge", American Economic Review, 84(2), pp. 1-9. • Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, 2008. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Yale. Description and preview. • Shiozawa, Y. 2004 Evolutionary Economics in the 21st Century: A Manifest, Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, 1(1): 5-47. the role of simplifying assumptions such as rational choice and profit maximizing in explaining or predicting phenomena• Lawrence A. Boland, 2008. "assumptions controversy", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • 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. Reprinted in J.C. Wood & R.N. Woods, ed., 1990, Milton Friedman: Critical Assessments, v. I, pp. 107-13. Preview. Routledge. • Stanley Wong, 1973. "The 'F-Twist' and the Methodology of Paul Samuelson", American Economic Review, 63(3) p p. 312-325. Reprinted in J.C. Wood & R.N. Woods, ed., Milton Friedman: Critical Assessments, v. II, pp. 224-43. • Shaun Hargreaves Heap, 2008. "economic man", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Kenneth J. Arrow, 1989. "Economic theory and the hypothesis of rationality", in The New Palgrave: Utility and Probability, pp. 25-39. • Duncan K. Foley, 2004. "Rationality and Ideology in Economics", Social Research, pp. 329-342. Pre-publication version . • Thomas J. Sargent, 1994. Bounded Rationality in Macroeconomics, Oxford. Description and chapter-preview 1st-page links. • Vernon L. Smith, 2008. Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms, Cambridge. Description/contents links and preview. descriptive/positive, prescriptive/normative, and applied• David Colander (1992). "Retrospectives: The Lost Art of Economics", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6(3), pp. 191-198. • John Neville Keynes, 1891. The Scope and Method of Political Economy. ch. I-II. Annotated chapter links. 4th ed., 1917 . Full Contents. uses of theory• Richard G. Lipsey, 2008. "positive economics". The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Amartya Sen, 1980. "Description as Choice", Oxford Economic Papers, N.S., 32(3), pp. 353-369. Reprinted in Sen, 1982, Choice, Welfare and Measurement, Oxford, Basil Blackwell. Chapter-preview link, p. 432-449. • John Neville Keynes, 1891. The Scope and Method of Political Economy. ch. I, III. Annotated chapter links. 4th ed., 1917 . Full Contents. • Colin F. Camerer, 2003. Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments in Strategic Interaction, pp. 5-7 (scroll to at 1.1 What Is Game Theory Good For? ). • Kenneth E. Boulding, 1969. "Economics as a Moral Science", American Economic Review, 59(1), pp. 1–12. • A. B. Atkinson, 2009. "Economics as a Moral Science", Economica, 76(1), pp. 791–804. • "Economics as a Moral Science" session, 2011. American Economic Review, 101(3), article-abstract links. the scientific status• Lionel Robbins, 1932. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. • Richard G. Lipsey, 2009. "Some Legacies of Robbins' An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science", Economica, 76(302), pp. 845-56 (press + button). • Alexander Rosenberg (1983). "If Economics Isn't Science, What Is It?" Philosophical Forum, 14, pp. 296-314. Reprinted in M. Martin and L. C. McIntyre (1996), Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science, pp. 661-674. • Douglas W. Hands, 1984. "What Economics Is Not: An Economist's Response to Rosenberg", Philosophy of Science, 51(3), p p. 495-503. • Daniel M. Hausman, 1992. The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics. Description, to ch. 1 link, preview, and reviews, 1st pages: . and expanding domain of economics• Edward P. Lazear, 2000. "Economic Imperialism", Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(1), pp. 99-146. • George J. Stigler, 1984. "Economics—The Imperial Science?" Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 86(3), p p. 301-313. • Ben Fine, 2000. " Economics Imperialism and Intellectual Progress: The Present as History of Economic Thought?" History of Economics Review, 32, pp. 10-36 . • Jack Hirshleifer, 1985. "The Expanding Domain of Economics", American Economic Review, 75(6), pp. 53-68 (press +). Reprinted in Jack Hirshleifer, 2001, The Dark Side of the Force: Economic Foundations of Conflict Theory, ch.14, pp. 306- 42. • Gary S. Becker, 1976. The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. Description and preview. • _____, 1992. "The Economic Way of Looking at Life." Nobel Lecture link, also in 1993, Journal of Political Economy, 101(3), pp. 383-409. issues critical to the practice and progress of econometrics• Kevin D. Hoover, 2008. "causality in economics and econometrics", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract and galley proof. • H. Wold 1954. "Causality and Econometrics", Econometrica, 22(2), p p. 162-177. • C. W. J. Granger and P. Newbold, 1974. "Spurious Regressions in Econometrics", Journal of Econometrics, 2(2), pp. 111-120. • David F. Hendry, 1980. "Econometrics — Alchemy or Science?" Economica, N.S., 47(188), pp. 387-406. • _____ 2001a. "Achievements and Challenges in Econometric Methodology", Journal of Econometrics, 100(1), pp. 7-10. PDF, pp. 1-4 . • _____, 2001b. Econometrics: Alchemy or Science Essays in Econometric Methodology, 2nd Edition. Oxford. Description and contents. Review in the Economic Journal. • Edward E. Leamer, 1983. "Let's Take the Con Out of Econometrics", American Economic Review, 73(1), pp. 31-43. • Christopher A. Sims, 1980. "Macroeconomics and Reality", Econometrica,48, No. 1, pp. 1-48 . • Fischer Black, 1982. "The Trouble with Econometric Models", Financial Analysts Journal, 38(2), pp. 29-37. Reprinted in Black, 2009, Business Cycles and Equilibrium, Wiley. Updated version, pp. 135 - 150. • From Truman F. Bewley, ed., 1987. Advances in Econometrics: Fifth World Congress, Cambridge v. 2: Edward E. Leamer, "Econometric Metaphors", pp. 1- 28. David F. Hendry. "Econometric Methodology: A Personal Perspective", pp. 29- 42. • P.C.B. Phillips, 1988. "Reflections on Econometric Methodology", Economic Record, 64(4), pp. 344–359. Abstract. • David F. Hendry, Edward E. Leamer, and Dale J. Poirier, 1990. "The ET Dialogue: A Conversation on Econometric Methodology", Econometric Theory, 6(2), pp. 171-261. • Deirdre N. McCloskey and Stephen T. Ziliak, 1996. "The Standard Error of Regressions", Journal of Economic Literature, 34(1), pp. 97–114. • Kevin D. Hoover and Mark V. Siegler, 2008. "Sound and Fury: McCloskey and Significance Testing in Economics", Journal of Economic Methodology, 15(1), pp. 1–37; McCloskey and Ziliak, "Signifying Nothing: Reply to ..." [preprint] and Hoover and Siegler, "... Rejoinder to ..., pp. 39–68; • Edward J. Nell and Karim Errouaki, 2011. Rational Econometric Man, Part I and ch. 10. Edward Elgar. the balance of empirical and philosophical approaches• Mark Blaug, 2007. "The Social Sciences: Economics", Postwar developments, Methodological considerations in contemporary economics, The New Encyclopædia Britannica, v. 27, pp. 346-47. • Edward J. Nell (2004) "Critical Realism and Transformational Growth." In Transforming Economics. Edited by P. Lewis. London: Routledge.76-95. • Frank H. Knight, 1924. "The Limitations of Scientific Method in Economics", in The Trend of Economics, R.G. Tugwell, ed., pp. 229-67. Reprinted in Frank H. Knight, 1935 , The Ethics of Competition, pp. 97- 139. •Daniel M. Hausman, 1983. "The Limits of Economic Science", in The Limits of Lawfulness: Studies on the Scope and Nature of Scientific Knowledge, N. Rescher, ed. Reprinted in D.M. Hausman, 1992, Essays on Philosophy and Economic Methodology, pp. 99-108. • Ludwig von Mises, 1949. Human Action. • Bruce Caldwell, 2008. "positivism", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract.