The Uses of Economic Theory: Against a Purely Positive Interpretation of Theoretical Results
Published By: BREAD on eSS | Published Date: May, 04 , 2002Economists are excessively influenced by the so-called positive
economics view, which says that economists should only describe and not
prescribe. Here the author argue that this view is flawed because it makes unreasonably
strong assumptions about what players (the agents taking economic decisions)
know and understand. He then use the example of micro-credit to show how this
bias towards positive economics has distorted the policy debate. [BREAD Working Paper No. 007] URL: [http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/007.pdf]
Author(s): Abhijit V. Banerjee | Posted on: Mar 04, 2011 | Views(926) | Download (94)