In economics, thought experiments are frequently justified by the difficulty of conducting controlled experiments. They serve several functions, such as establishing causal facts, isolating tendencies, and allowing inferences from models to reality. In this paper, I argue that thought...

The main point of this paper is to contribute to understanding Milton Friedman’s (1953) “The Methodology of Positive Economics” (hereafter F1953), one of the most influential statements of economic methodology of the twentieth century, and, in doing so, help discern the non trivial but...

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Italian scholars started using a scientific methodology to tackle public finance problems. Their studies are now referred to as the Italian tradition in public finance, whose origin is considered to lie with De Viti de Marco (1888). Shortly before...

The state of contemporary economics had been a subject of discussion even before the most recent global financial crisis. The one-sidedness of the discipline has frequently been lamented and calls are often made for its pluralisation. Nevertheless, there is neither a consensus over the form of...

The aim of this paper is to emphasize several methodological novelties, introduced in the economic analysis by the British economist John Maynard Keynes. This article presents some of the most important concepts that Keynes used, in order to create a new economic theory, capable to offer...

The systematic study of political economy begins with the recognition of two seemingly contradictory observations about commercial life. The first observation is that individuals pursue their self-interest and do so as effectively as they are capable of doing. The second observation is that...

I argue that economists have reasons internal to the way that evidence works in the sciences to re-discover the importance of the history of their own discipline. For it is a constitutive element of science - here conceived as an ongoing research practice (as opposed to as an explanatory...

For the last few decades, considerable attention has been paid to the methodology of mainstream economics. It is not mere chance that economics is surrounded by methodological debates. If its relevance is at stake, this can be either refuted or proven most efficiently at a methodological level....

Mainstream economics has been running the gauntlet of adverse criticism for decades. These critiques claim as a message of central importance that mainstream economics has lost its relevance as for understanding reality. By making a brief comparison between the methodological strategies of the...

The Coase theorem is associated with Stigler because Stigler coined the term. The object of this paper is to show that Stigler's Coase theorem is Stiglerian for deeper – namely, methodological – reasons. We argue that, convinced as he was by the importance of Coase's message, Stigler also...