Dilemmas of an Economic Theorist
Revista de Economía Institucional, Vol. 8, No. 14, First Semester 2006
23 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2006
Abstract
What on earth are economic theorists like me trying to accomplish? The paper discusses four dilemmas encountered by an economic theorist: i) the dilemma of absurd conclusions: should we abandon a model if it produces absurd conclusions or should we regard a model as a very limited set of assumptions which will inevitably fail in some contexts?; ii) the dilemma of responding to evidence: should our models be judged according to experimental results?; iii) the dilemma of model-less regularities: should models provide the hypothesis for testing or are they simply exercises in logic which have no use in identifying regularities?, and iv) the dilemma of relevance: do we have the right to offer advice or to make statements which are intended to influence the real world?
Keywords: dilemmas, economic theory, absurd conclusions, relevance
JEL Classification: A11, A13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Instinctive and Cognitive Reasoning: A Study of Response Times
-
Small- and Large-Stakes Risk Aversion: Implications of Concavity Calibration for Decision Theory
By James C. Cox and Vjollca Sadiraj
-
Measuring Intertemporal Preferences Using Response Times
By Christopher F. Chabris, David Laibson, ...
-
Fast or Fair? A Study of Response Times
By Marco Piovesan and Erik Wengström
-
Strategic Choice of Preferences: The Persona Model
By David Wolpert, Julian C. Jamison, ...
-
Response Time Under Monetary Incentives: The Ultimatum Game
By Pablo Brañas-garza, Ana Leon-mejia, ...
-
Schelling Formalized: Strategic Choices of Non-Rational Personas
-
The Harmfulness of the EU Theory
By Hak Choi