IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ake/iiepdt/202163.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Models, Realism And Similarity

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo Ivarola

    (Instituto Interdisciplinario de Economía Política de Buenos Aires - UBA - CONICET)

Abstract

In the present paper it is argued that differences among economic models are basically differences in their selected part of the real world these models try to account for. Therefore, their range of applicability to a target system turns out to be important for their selection to particular purposes. In this respect, an approach based on the similarity of models to a target system and to the modelers’ purposes is provided. It is also argued that models vary in values of similarity. These values will help agents to select the model that best meets the role of examining some phenomenon of interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Ivarola, 2021. "Economic Models, Realism And Similarity," Documentos de trabajo del Instituto Interdisciplinario de Economía Política IIEP (UBA-CONICET) 2021-63, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Instituto Interdisciplinario de Economía Política IIEP (UBA-CONICET).
    • Handle: RePEc:ake:iiepdt:202163
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://iiep-baires.econ.uba.ar/uploads/publicaciones/533/archivos/1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Morgan,Mary S., 2012. "The World in the Model," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107002975, November.
    2. Prebisch, Raúl, 1950. "The economic development of Latin America and its principal problems," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 29973, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    3. Pfleiderer, Paul, 2018. "Chameleons: The Misuse of Theoretical Models in Finance and Economics," Research Papers 3020, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    4. Alan Musgrave, 1981. "‘Unreal Assumptions’ In Economic Theory: The F‐Twist Untwisted," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 377-387, August.
    5. Morgan,Mary S., 2012. "The World in the Model," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521176194, November.
    6. Cartwright,Nancy, 1999. "The Dappled World," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521643368, November.
    7. Cartwright,Nancy, 1999. "The Dappled World," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521644112, November.
    8. James M. Cypher & James L. Dietz, 1998. "Static and Dynamic Comparative Advantage: A Multi-Period Analysis with Declining Terms of Trade," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 305-314, June.
    9. Musgrave, Alan, 1981. "'Unreal Assumptions' in Economic Theory: The F-Twist Untwisted," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 377-387.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giandomenica Becchio, 2020. "The Two Blades of Occam's Razor in Economics: Logical and Heuristic," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Łukasz Hardt, 2018. "Prawa ceteris rectis w ekonomii," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 9-31.
    3. Nicolas Brisset, 2018. "Models as speech acts: the telling case of financial models," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 21-41, January.
    4. Nelson, Richard R., 2016. "The sciences are different and the differences matter," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1692-1701.
    5. Arne HEISE, 2020. "Comparing economic theories or: pluralism in economics and the need for a comparative approach to scientific research programmes," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 13(2), pages 162-184, November.
    6. John Rust, 2014. "The Limits of Inference with Theory: A Review of Wolpin (2013)," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 820-850, September.
    7. Stephane Wolton, 2019. "Are Biased Media Bad for Democracy?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(3), pages 548-562, July.
    8. Guala, Francesco, 2006. "Getting the FCC auctions straight: A reply to Nik-Khah," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 7(3), pages 23-28.
    9. Wakamatsu, Naoyuki, 2020. "On Ricardo’s Multilayered Method: Wage Taxation and Foreign Subsidies Considered," MPRA Paper 103531, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Ricardo F. Crespo, 2012. "Models as signs" as "good economic models," Estudios Economicos, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Departamento de Economia, vol. 29(58), pages 1-12, january-j.
    11. Piotr Tarka, 2018. "An overview of structural equation modeling: its beginnings, historical development, usefulness and controversies in the social sciences," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 313-354, January.
    12. Arthur Brackmann Netto, 2017. "The Double Edge of Case-Studies: A Frame-Based Definition of Economic Models," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2017_21, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    13. Sean Muller, 2012. "Econometric methods and Reichenbach's principle," SALDRU Working Papers 85, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    14. Mary S. Morgan, 2019. "Recovering Tinbergen," De Economist, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 283-295, September.
    15. Heinz D. Kurz, 2017. "Is there a “Ricardian Vice”? And what is its relationship with economic policy ad“vice”?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 91-114, January.
    16. Mark Casson, 2018. "The Theory of International Business: The Role of Economic Models," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 363-387, June.
    17. Julian Reiss, 2001. "Natural economic quantities and their measurement," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 287-311.
    18. Kurz, Heinz D., 2018. "Stigler on Ricardo," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP27, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    19. Peter Rodenburg, 2016. "How Full is Full Employment?How Tools and Not Theory Explained Full Employment," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 5-25.
    20. Ivan Moscati, 2022. "Behavioral and heuristic models are as-if models too — and that’s ok," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 22177, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Similarity; Economic models; Mechanisms; Possibility tree; Substantive assumptions; Domain of applicability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ake:iiepdt:202163. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: IIEP UBA-CONICET (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ieeubar.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.