The Methodology of Economics Or, How Economists Explain [Paperback]

This is a revised and updated edition of a classic work on the methodology of economics.A revised and updated edition of a classic work on the nature of economic explanation introduces current thinking in the philosophy of science, looks at the status of welfare economics and provides a series of case studies of leading economic controversies as well.A revised and updated edition of a classic work on the nature of economic explanation introduces current thinking in the philosophy of science, looks at the status of welfare economics and provides a series of case studies of leading economic controversies as well.This book examines the nature of economic explanation. The author introduces current thinking in the philosophy of science and reviews the literature on methodology. He looks at the status of welfare economics, and also provides a series of case studies of leading economic controversies, showing how they may be illuminated by paying attention to questions of methodology. A final chapter draws the strands together and gives the author's view of what is wrong with modern economics. This book is a revised and updated edition of a classic work on the methodology of economics.Preface; Part I. What You Always Wanted to Know about the Philosophy of Science but Were Afraid to Ask: 1. From the received view to the views of Popper; 2. From Popper to the new heterodoxy; Part II. The History of Economic Methodology: 3. The verifications, a largely nineteenth-century story; 4. The falsifications, a wholly twentieth-century story; 5. The distinction between positive and normative economics; Part III. A Methodological Appraisal of the Neoclassical Research Program: 6. The theory of consumer behaviour; 7. The theory of fun; 8. General equilibrium theory; 9. Marginal productive theory; 10. Switching, reswitching, and all that; 11. The Heckscher-Ohlin theory of international trade; 12. Keynesians versus monetarists; 13. Human capital theory; 14. The new economics of the family;lC%