Journal of the History of Economic Thought 31 (2):201-214 (2009)
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In this paper I study how the theoretical categories of consumption theory were used by Milton Friedman in order to classify empirical data and obtain predictions. Friedman advocated a case by case definition of these categories that traded theoretical coherence for empirical content. I contend that this methodological strategy puts a clear incentive to contest any prediction contrary to our interest: it can always be argued that these predictions rest on a wrong classification of data. My conjecture is that this methodological strategy can contribute to explain why Friedman’s predictions never generated the consensus he expected among his peers.
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Keywords | Milton Friedman Prediction in economics |
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References found in this work BETA
The Methodology of Positive Economics.Milton Friedman - 1953 - In Essays in Positive Economics. University of Chicago Press. pp. 3-43.
Fundamentals of Concept Formation in Empirical Science.Carl Gustav Hempel - 1952 - University of Chicago Press.
An Architectonic for Science.Wolfgang Balzer, C. Ulises Moulines & Joseph D. Sneed - 1990 - Philosophy of Science 57 (2):349-350.
Fundamentals of Concept Formation in Empirical Science.Edward Poznański - 1958 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 23 (3):353-354.
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