Empirical Economic Research and Economic Policy Advice: Some Remarks
ISBN
978-1-4757-5046-1
Type
book section
Date Issued
2003
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Aiginger, Karl
Hutschenreiter, Gernot
Abstract
Since for any political position it is possible to find economists who defend it (for money) and often with empirical arguments, economists giving policy advice are — in the eyes of the general public — often accused of being corruptible. The purpose of this paper is to show that nevertheless it is possible that the process of policy advice leads to “objective knowledge”. We investigate the role of the scientist in this process. This is done on the basis of critical rationalism. It is shown that economic theory is in many relevant cases so weak that it is possible for different economists to defend pretty contrary positions with the claim of scientific truth. This makes empirical research necessary. However, as is shown using an example, researchers can often obtain their “desired” empirical result by manipulating the econometric estimates, without (obvious) violations of the rules of scientific work. To detect such manipulations, a critical discussion of theoretical approaches and empirical econometric results is necessary. But the scientific subsystem in our society is still not organised in a way that fosters such discussions. The situation could at least be somewhat improved. Especially, competition between researchers should be strengthened.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Book title
Economic Policy Issues for the Next Decade
Publisher
Springer US
Publisher place
Boston, MA
Start page
265
End page
288
Pages
24
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
58608