Econometrics : The Keynes-Tinbergen Controversy

The controversy between Keynes and Tinbergen was about the applicability of regression analysis to economic material. According to Keynes, a necessary requirement was that the economic material is homogeneous, in time and place, and that therefore Tinbergen should test his material for this condition. Tinbergen never addressed this problem, because he assumed that economic material was like the material studied in natural science, namely homogeneous. He therefore could not understand Keynes’s criticisms, and so assumed that Keynes did not understand his method