ABSTRACT
In recent years the word ‘model’ has come to besprinkle the page of learned articles and books on economics, and, even more so, the examination papers of candidates for degrees in that subject. I have the impression that, for the word ‘model’, some specific meaning can be formulated, although this meaning is subtle and elusive, and has, to my knowledge, been so far nowhere defined. If the word ‘model’, which has its aroma of implications, is applied to formulations which are not in fact ‘models’ in any meaningful sense that may be found for that word, then the implications can lead to false conclusions in relation to those formulations.
