Economic Theory and Causal Inference

HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSPHY OF ECONOMICS, Uskali Mäki, ed., Forthcoming

THE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, Dov Gabbay, Paul Thagard, and John Woods, eds., Elsevier/North-Holland, Amsterdam, Forthcoming

47 Pages Posted: 18 Sep 2006

See all articles by Kevin D. Hoover

Kevin D. Hoover

Duke University - Departments of Economics and Philosophy

Abstract

The article explores the relationship between the main approaches to causality in economics dividing them into reductionist and structuralist accounts. The approaches of the Cowles Commission, Granger-causality, causality as invariance under interventions, and graph-theoretic approaches to causality are considered with special attention to how they relate causal inference to economic theory.

Keywords: causality, causal inference, economic theory, econometrics, Cowles Commission, graph theory, invariance, Granger-causality, exogeneity, superexogeneity, structural vector autoregressions, Lucas critique

JEL Classification: B41, B16, B23, C10

Suggested Citation

Hoover, Kevin D., Economic Theory and Causal Inference. HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSPHY OF ECONOMICS, Uskali Mäki, ed., Forthcoming , THE HANDBOOK OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, Dov Gabbay, Paul Thagard, and John Woods, eds., Elsevier/North-Holland, Amsterdam, Forthcoming , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=930741

Kevin D. Hoover (Contact Author)

Duke University - Departments of Economics and Philosophy ( email )

213 Social Sciences Building
Box 90097
Durham, NC 27708-0204
United States

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