Os dois métodos da teoria econômica

Resumo

Economic theory deals with a complex reality, which may be seen through various perspectives, using different methods. Economics’ three major branches – development economics, macroeconomics, and microeconomics – cannot be unified because the former two use preferentially a historical-deductive, while the later, an essentially hypothetical-deductive or aprioristic method. Smith, Marx and Keynes used an essentially the method of the new historical facts, while Walras, an aprioristic one to devise the neoclassical general equilibrium model. The historical-deductive method looks for the new historical facts that condition the economic reality. Economic theory remains central, but it is more modest, or less general, as the economist that adopt principally this method is content to analyze stabilization and growth in the framework of a given historical phase or moment of the economic process. As a trade off, his models are more realistic and conducive to more effective economic policies, as long as he is not required to previously abandon, one by one, the unrealistic assumptions required by a excessively general theory, but already starts from more realistic ones

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Estudo

Ano

2003

Instituição

Fundação Getulio Vargas

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Português

Acesso

Não informado

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/1941

Temas

Economia

Palavras-chave

B4Economia