On the Attribution of Causality and Responsibility in Macroeconomics

Economic theories often involve, or appear to involve, statements about causality. As economics is a social science, the elements of a theory that appear to play a causal role are often familiar human activities, for example, making business decisions or consuming. If the theorist or his audience have not been involved in such activities themselves, they have almost certainly been exposed to them in some way, and have attitudes towards them that pre-date the formulation of the theory. The elements of a theory that play the role of consequences are likewise matters about which the theorist and his audience have opinions formed prior to the appearance of the theory. As a result, a statement that in a strictly theoretical sense appears to be causal may come to be interpreted as a statement about moral responsibility. That is, if a theory seems to identify a certain activity as a cause of some desirable consequence, there is a tendency to use that theory as a basis for giving the people engaged in that activity credit for the consequence. In the same way, those whose activities are causally linked to an unpleasant economic outcome may be assigned blame for that outcome.