Would you describe economics as a science?

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Would you describe economics as a science?

Economics is commonly classed as a social science. It is subject which is not comparable to any other. It is very difficult to place economics is one category as its roots lie in several different fields. Most definitions agree that a science must generate models that accurately predict real life outcomes. They also agree that these models must be testable. Nobel prize-winner Maurice Allais stated that the “essential condition of any science is the existence of regularities which can be analysed and forecast”. To find out whether economics is a science we must find out if the subject generates such models.

Much debate has gone into whether economics generates such testable models. Philosophers such as Popper and Kuhn had different ideas, but neither could convincingly explain how scientific knowledge is obtained. Popper believed scientific knowledge must be testable empirically. He had the Platonic view that if a theory can be refuted then we can be sure that it is not true. A theory that is tested empirically and not refuted is retained and gains credibility, but not accepted as fact. He also believed that if predictions are falsified then the theory should be abandoned. Kuhn’s views are discussed later on.

The big problem with economic models is that they are dependant upon the actions of individual people. Individuals can be chaotic in their actions. This would mean that it would be impossible for an economic model to predict a real life situation, as it is impossible to successfully predict what each individual will do in a given situation. This would mean that economic models are incapable of predicting anything with any certainty. According to this information this would mean that economics is not a science, as its models do not generate predictions that carry any degree of certainty.

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However, although it is near impossible to predict the actions of an individual in a given situation, it is possible to predict the actions of a larger number of people. This requires the use of the law of normality. This states that as the number of people increases, the large-scale properties of the population tend to a normal distribution. This distribution does not show the position of each individual and therefore does not show the properties of each individual, but it does accurately show the overall distribution of the population. The normal distribution is symmetrical, which means that the ...

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