Sur la méthode de l'économie

The question of method in economics This article first mentions the increasingly widespread application of economic analysis, and also notes the consequences of the fact that the amelioration of social ills is one of main aims of economics. It then focuses on certain methodological questions relating to this discipline. The nature of the scientific method is analyzed, and possible differences between so-called exact and social sciences are discussed from this point of view (apart from knowledge gained by empathy, the differences are simply a matter of degree on several parameters). The success of economics as a science stems from its having chosen, right at the start, a set of variables which is both quite simple and quite rich : quantities, but of several different kinds (commodities and prices). This led to mathematization, the degree and usefulness of which is discussed, notably using the examples of Walras, Keynes, and Marx. The author then turns to the question of experimentation in economics. Although this is a minor mode of information in the discipline, there does exist by now a large number of cases of experiments in the strict sense, of experimental policies, of experimental, data-gathering, and of experiments on models of various types.Kolm Serge-Christophe. Sur la méthode de l'économie. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 33ᵉ année, N. 3, 1978. pp. 602-622