Is Macroeconomics a Science?

Barnett, William A. (2006): Is Macroeconomics a Science?

Abstract

This paper was written as the first draft of the invited Foreword for the book, Money and the Economy, by Apostolos Serletis. The paper provides a critical view of those areas in which methodology in economics deviates from that in the physical sciences, provides examples and illustrations of those deviations, and emphasizes those areas of and approaches to economic research that most closely correspond with the nature of research in the physical sciences.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: science; social science; politics; Federal Reserve; monetary policy
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B41 - Economic Methodology; A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A11 - Role of Economics ; Role of Economists ; Market for Economists; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C0 - General > C00 - General; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925 > B20 - General; A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A10 - General

References

Barnett, William A. and Paul A. Samuelson (eds.) (2006), Inside the Economist's Mind, Boston, Blackwell Publishing.

Barnett, William A. and Jane Binner (eds.) (2004), Functional Structure and Approximation in Econometrics, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Barnett, William A. and Apostolos Serletis (eds.) (2000), The Theory of Monetary Aggregation, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Barnett, William A., Barry Jones, Milka Kirova, Travis Nesmith, and Meenkashi Pasupathy (2005), "The Nonlinear Skeletons in the Closet," in: Michael Belongia and Jane Binner (eds.), Money, Measurement, and Computation, Palgrave.

Evans, George W. and Seppo Honkapohja (2005), “An Interview of Thomas Sargent,” Macroeconomic Dynamics, vol 9, no 4, September. Reprinted in: Barnett, William A. and Paul A. Samuelson (eds.) (2006), Inside the Economist’s Mind, Boston, Blackwell Publishing.

Heckman, James J. (2005), “Interview with James J. Heckman,” The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, June.

Keynes, John Maynard (1936), The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.

Samuelson, Paul A. (2006), “Reflections on How Biographies of Individual Scholars Can Relate to a Science’s Biography,” in: William A. Barnett and Paul A. Samuelson (eds.) (2006), Inside the Economist’s Mind, Boston, Blackwell Publishing.

Serletis, Apostolos (2006), “Editor’s Introduction,” Money and the Economy, World Scientific, forthcoming.