Why economics should be a modest and reasonable science

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 corr...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Bresser-Pereira, Luiz Carlos
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:Brasil
Recursos:Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional do FGV (FGV Repositório Digital)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/9258
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10438/9258
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Probability
Uncertainty
Modesty
Method
Neoclassical economics
Economia
Escola neoclássica de economia
Probabilidades
Descrição
Resumo: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.