Descriptive Economics
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Descriptive Economics
In the philosophy of economics, economics is often divided into positive (or descriptive) and normative (or prescriptive) economics. Positive economics focuses on the description, quantification and explanation of economic phenomena, Stanley Wong (1987). "positive economics," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 920–921 while normative economics discusses prescriptions for what actions individuals or societies should or should not take. Paul A. Samuelson and William D. Nordhaus (2004). ''Economics'', 18th ed., pp. 5–6 & ndGlossary of Terms, "Normative vs. positive economics." The positive-normative distinction is related to the subjective-objective and fact-value distinctions in philosophy. However, the two are not the same. Branches of normative economics such as social choice, game theory, and decision theory typically emphasize the study of ''prescriptive facts'', such as mathematical prescriptions for what constitutes rational or irrational behavior ( ...
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Philosophy Of Economics
Philosophy and economics studies topics such as public economics, behavioural economics, rationality, justice, history of economic thought, rational choice, the appraisal of economic outcomes, institutions and processes, the status of highly idealized economic models, the ontology of economic phenomena and the possibilities of acquiring knowledge of them. It is useful to divide philosophy of economics in this way into three subject matters which can be regarded respectively as branches of action theory, ethics (or normative social and political philosophy), and philosophy of science. Economic theories of rationality, welfare, and social choice defend substantive philosophical theses often informed by relevant philosophical literature and of evident interest to those interested in action theory, philosophical psychology, and social and political philosophy. Economics is of special interest to those interested in epistemology and philosophy of science both because of its detaile ...
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Behavior
Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as well as the inanimate physical environment. It is the computed response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary action, voluntary or Volition (psychology), involuntary. While some behavior is produced in response to an organism's environment (extrinsic motivation), behavior can also be the product of intrinsic motivation, also referred to as "agency" or "free will". Taking a behavior informatics perspective, a behavior consists of actor, operation, interactions, and their properties. This can be represented as a behavior Euclidean vector, vector. Models Biology Definition Behavior may be defined as "the internally coordin ...
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Theory
A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, and research. Theories can be scientific, falling within the realm of empirical and testable knowledge, or they may belong to non-scientific disciplines, such as philosophy, art, or sociology. In some cases, theories may exist independently of any formal discipline. In modern science, the term "theory" refers to Scientific theory, scientific theories, a well-confirmed type of explanation of nature, made in a way Consistency, consistent with the scientific method, and fulfilling the Scientific theory#Characteristics of theories, criteria required by modern science. Such theories are described in such a way that scientific tests should be able to provide Empirical evidence, empirical support for it, or Empirical evidence, empirical contradi ...
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Value Theory
Value theory, also called ''axiology'', studies the nature, sources, and types of Value (ethics and social sciences), values. It is a branch of philosophy and an interdisciplinary field closely associated with social sciences such as economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Value is the worth of something, usually understood as covering both positive and negative degrees corresponding to the terms ''good'' and ''bad''. Values influence many human endeavors related to emotion, decision-making, and Action (philosophy), action. Value theorists distinguish various types of values, like the contrast between Instrumental and intrinsic value, intrinsic and instrumental value. An entity has Intrinsic value (ethics), intrinsic value if it is good in itself, independent of external factors. An entity has instrumental value if it is useful as a means leading to other good things. Other classifications focus on the type of benefit, including economic, moral, political, aesthetic, ...
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Falsifiability
Falsifiability (or refutability) is a deductive standard of evaluation of scientific theories and hypotheses, introduced by the Philosophy of science, philosopher of science Karl Popper in his book ''The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' (1934). A Scientific theory, theory or hypothesis is falsifiable if it can be logically contradicted by an empirical test. Popper emphasized the asymmetry created by the relation of a universal law with basic observation statements and contrasted falsifiability to the intuitively similar concept of Verifiability (science), ''verifiability'' that was then current in logical positivism. He argued that the only way to verify a claim such as "All swans are white" would be if one could theoretically observe all swans, which is not possible. On the other hand, the falsifiability requirement for an anomalous instance, such as the observation of a single black swan, is theoretically reasonable and sufficient to logically falsify the claim. Popper propo ...
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Essays In Positive Economics
Milton Friedman's book ''Essays in Positive Economics'' (1953) is a collection of earlier articles by the author with as its lead an original essay "The Economic methodology, Methodology of Positive Economics." This essay posits Friedman's famous, but controversial, principle (called the F-Twist by Paul Samuelson, Samuelson) that assumptions need not be "realistic" to serve as scientific hypotheses; they merely need to make significant predictions. Contents of the book The book is organized in four parts: * Introduction : The Methodology of Positive Economics * Price Theory : The Marshallian Demand Curve : The ‘Welfare’ Effects of an Income Tax and an Excise Tax * Monetary Theory and Policy : The Effects of a Full-Employment Policy on Economic Stability: A Formal Analysis : A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability : The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates : Commodity-Reserve Currency : Discussion of the Inflationary Gap : Comments on Monetary Policy * Comments on Me ...
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Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy. With George Stigler, Friedman was among the intellectual leaders of the Chicago school of economics, a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the faculty at the University of Chicago that rejected Keynesianism in favor of monetarism before shifting their focus to new classical macroeconomics in the mid-1970s. Several students, young professors and academics who were recruited or mentored by Friedman at Chicago went on to become leading economists, including Gary Becker, Robert Fogel, and Robert Lucas Jr. Friedman's challenges to what he called "naive Keynesian theory" began with his interpretation of consumption, which tracks how consumers spend. He introduced a theory w ...
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The New Palgrave Dictionary Of Economics
''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics'' (2018), 3rd ed., is a twenty-volume reference work on economics published by Palgrave Macmillan. It contains around 3,000 entries, including many classic essays from the original Inglis Palgrave Dictionary, and a significant increase in new entries from the previous editions by the most prominent economists in the field, among them 36 winners of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Articles are classified according to ''Journal of Economic Literature'' (''JEL'') classification codes. ''The New Palgrave'' is also available in a hyperlinked online version. Online content is added to the 2018 edition, and a 4th edition under the editorship of Jayati Ghosh, Esteban Pérez Caldentey, and Matías Vernengo will be published in 2027. J. Barkley Rosser Jr. was a co-editor until his untimely demise. The 1st edition was titled ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'' (1987), was and edited by John ...
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Richard Lipsey
Richard George Lipsey, (born August 28, 1928) is a Canadian academic and economist. He is best known for his work on the Theory of the Second Best, economics of the second-best, a theory that demonstrated that piecemeal establishing of individual first best conditions would not necessarily raise welfare in a situation in which all first best conditions could not be satisfied, an article that he co-authored with Kelvin Lancaster. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser University. Early life and education Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1951 from the University of British Columbia, a Master of Arts degree in 1953 from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in 1956 from the London School of Economics, where he studied under thesis director and future Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Nobel Prize winner James Meade. Career From 1955 to 1963, he held the positions of assistant ...
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Verificationism
Verificationism, also known as the verification principle or the verifiability criterion of meaning, is a doctrine in philosophy which asserts that a statement is meaningful only if it is either empirically verifiable (can be confirmed through the senses) or a tautology (true by virtue of its own meaning or its own logical form). Verificationism rejects statements of metaphysics, theology, ethics and aesthetics as meaningless in conveying truth value or factual content, though they may be meaningful in influencing emotions or behavior. Verificationism was a central thesis of logical positivism, a movement in analytic philosophy that emerged in the 1920s by philosophers who sought to unify philosophy and science under a common naturalistic theory of knowledge. The verifiability criterion underwent various revisions throughout the 1920s to 1950s. However, by the 1960s, it was deemed to be irreparably untenable. Its abandonment would eventually precipitate the collapse of the bro ...
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Economic Theory
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyses what is viewed as basic elements within economies, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers. Macroeconomics analyses economies as systems where production, distribution, consumption, savings, and investment expenditure interact; and the factors of production affecting them, such as: labour, capital, land, and enterprise, inflation, economic growth, and public policies that impact these elements. It also seeks to analyse and describe the global economy. Other broad distinctions within economics include those between positive economics, describing "what is", and normative economics, advo ...
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Causality
Causality is an influence by which one Event (philosophy), event, process, state, or Object (philosophy), object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cause is at least partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is at least partly dependent on the cause. The cause of something may also be described as the reason for the event or process. In general, a process can have multiple causes,Compare: which are also said to be ''causal factors'' for it, and all lie in its past. An effect can in turn be a cause of, or causal factor for, many other effects, which all lie in its future. Some writers have held that causality is metaphysics , metaphysically prior to notions of time and space. Causality is an abstraction that indicates how the world progresses. As such it is a basic concept; it is more apt to be an explanation of other concepts of progression than something to be explained by other more fun ...
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