Causation In Economics

Causation in economics has a long history with Adam Smith explicitly acknowledging its importance via his (1776) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations and David Hume (1739, 1742, 1777) and John Stuart Mill (1848) both offering important contributions with more philosophical discussions. Hoover (2006) suggests that a useful way of classifying approaches to causation in economics might be to distinguish between approaches that emphasize structure and those that emphasize process and to add to this a distinction between approaches that adopt a priori reasoning and those that seek to infer causation from the evidence provided by data. He represented by this little table which useful identifies key works in each of the four categories.Hoover, K.D. (2006) Causality in Economics and Econometrics, An Entry for the ''New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics''. (''A draft'')
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References

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References cited in Hoover

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Angrist, Joshua D. and Alan B. Krueger. (2001) “Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments,” ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'' 15(4), 69–85.

Favero, Carlos. and David F. Hendry. (1992) “Testing the Lucas Critique: A Review,” ''Econometric Reviews'' 11(3), 265–306.

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Hood, William and Tjalling Koopmans, editors. (1953) ''Studies in Econometric Method'', Cowles Commission Monograph 14. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Hoover, Kevin D. (1990) “The Logic of Causal Inference: Econometrics and the Conditional Analysis of Causality,” ''Economics and Philosophy'' 6(2), 207–234.

Hoover, Kevin D. (2001) ''Causality in Macroeconomics''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hume, David. (1739) ''A Treatise of Human Nature''.

Hume, David. (1742) “Of Interest,” in ''Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary''.

Hume, David. (1777) ''An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding''.

Koopmans, Tjalling, ed. (1950) ''Statistical Inference in Dynamic Economic Models'', Cowles Commission Monograph 10. New York: Wiley.

Mill, John Stuart. (1848) ''Principles of Political Economy with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy''

Simon, Herbert A. 1953 “Causal Order and Identifiability,” in Hood and Koopmans (1953), pp. 49–74.

Sims, Christopher A. (1980). “Macroeconomics and Reality,” ''Econometrica'' 48, 1-48.

Smith Adam (1776) ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations''

Zellner, Arnold A. (1979) “Causality and Econometrics,” in Karl Brunner and Allan H. Meltzer, editors. Three Aspects of Policy Making: Knowledge, Data and Institutions, Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, vol. 10. Amsterdam, North-Holland, pp. 9–54.

Economic methodology