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Methodology of Non-Experimental Economic Research (II): Cognitive Functions of Non-Intendedly Empirical Theories

In: Economic Theories and their Relational Structures

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  • Erwin Klein

    (Dalhousie University)

Abstract

Economic theorists construct theories about economic phenomena and then contrast those theories with data, through the roundabout paths described in Part III. However, they face the handicap of being only seldom able to subject those theories to experimental control. Usually, economic processes cannot be ‘caused to occur on demand’ and variables, parameters, and structural settings cannot be manipulated ‘under specially controlled conditions’. Hence the emergence of a methodology consisting in the simulation of experiments — which includes, in a prominent position, the analytic simulation of experiments — should not be surprising. In the latter case, procedures which are not viable at the actual experimental level are substituted, albeit only imperfectly and incompletely, by alternative operations performed at a rigorous analytic level.

Suggested Citation

  • Erwin Klein, 1998. "Methodology of Non-Experimental Economic Research (II): Cognitive Functions of Non-Intendedly Empirical Theories," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Economic Theories and their Relational Structures, chapter 12, pages 186-210, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-37764-6_12
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230377646_12
    as

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