ABSTRACT
Albert Einstein [1936, pp. 58-9] This book examines the methodology of modern economics. By the term ‘methodology’ I mean the economists’ view of the relationship between their theories and their methods of reaching conclusions about the nature of the real world using those theories. To many this endeavor may seem to be an easy task. But I will argue that the methodology of economics is not as obvious as it might first appear because the actual practice of methodology is taken for granted. I will argue that, until the late 1990s, what was usually discussed under the topic of ‘economic methodology’ was more concerned with the interests of philosophers of science than with the interests of economic theorists. I will advance the view that a proper study of methodology should be concerned with the actual role of methodology as manifested in the nature of neoclassical theories, models and research agenda.
