Economic Methodology: Understanding Economics as a Science

by Marcel Boumans, John Davis

Economic methodology was formally recognized as a field of economic inquiry in the 1980s, asn was heavily influenced by currents in the philosophy of science, particularly by the reaction against logical positivism as exemplified in the writings of Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos. The authors, bringing to bear a wealth of research and teaching experience, situate the field within the broader philosophy of science tradition. They explore the key refinements to, and extensions and departures from, the field in order to understand issues prevalent in the economic domain.

Genres: Economics, Philosophy

230 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2010

About the author

Marcel Boumans is historian and philosopher of science at Utrecht University. His main research focus is on understanding empirical research practices in economics from a philosophy of science-in-practice perspective. He is particularly interested in the practices of measurement and modeling and the role of mathematics in social science. These topics are covered by his most recent monograph Science outside the Laboratory (2015). His current research project is on vision and visualization, focused on an epistemological understanding of expert judgments.