On the Reliability of Economic Models Essays in the Philosophy of Economics

This volume represents a contribution to the philosophy of economics with a distinctive point of view -- the contributors have selected particular areas of economics and have probed these areas for the philosophical and methodological issues that they raise. The primary essays are written by philosophers concentrating on philosophical issues that arise at the level of the everyday theoretical practice of working economists. Commentary essays are provided by working economists responding to the philosophical arguments from the standpoint of their own disciplines. The volume thus represents something of an `experiment' in the philosophy of science, striving as it does to explore methodological issues across two research communities. The purpose of the volume is very specific: to stimulate a discussion of the epistemology and methodology of economics that works at the level of detail of existing `best practice' in economics today. The contributors have designed their contributions to stimulate productive conversation between philosophers and economists on topics in the methodology of economics.

1 Introduction: Current Issues in the Philosophy of Economics.- 2 Causation and Explanation in Econometrics.- 3 Causal Structures in Econometrics.- Commentson Cartwright and Woodward: Causation, Estimation, and Statistics.- 4 The Epistemic Foundations of Nash Equilibrium.- Comments on Bicchieri: The Epistemic Foundations of Nash Equilibrium.- 5 Observing the Unobservable.- Commentson Schmidtz: Observing the Unobservable.- 6 Parmenides and the Cliometricians.- Commentson Schabas: The Nature and Significance of the “New” Economic History.- 7 Optimality Arguments and the Theory of the Firm.- Commentson Kincaid: Optimality Arguments and the Theory of the Firm.- 8 Economic Models in Development Economics.- Commentson Little: Economic Models in Development Economics.