<p>Contents<br/>Acknowledgements<br/>Preface<br/>PROLOGUE Methodology vs Applied Methodology 1<br/>1 Model building in modern economics<br/>2 Methodology as a study of model-building methods<br/>3 Applied methodology as a research programme<br/>PART I Applications of the Popper-Samuelson<br/>Demarcation<br/>1 Economic understanding and understanding economics 17<br/>1 The role of models in economics<br/>2 On the foundations of economic ignorance: axiomatics<br/>3 Beyond axiomatics<br/>4 Testability for all<br/>2 On the methodology of economic model building 39<br/>1 Economic theories and the aim of science<br/>2 Popper’s famous demarcation criterion<br/>3 Popper’s subclass relations and the comparison of theories<br/>4 Testability and Popper’s dimension of a theory<br/>3 Implementing the Popper-Samuelson<br/>demarcation in economics 64<br/>1 Calculating the Popper-dimension of explicit models<br/>2 Examples of the P-dimension in economic models<br/>3 The identification problem and the P-dimension<br/>4 Concluding remarks about the P-dimension<br/>PART II Popper-Samuelson Demarcation<br/>vs the Truth Status of Models<br/>4 Conventionalism and economic theory:<br/>methodological controversy in the 1960s 87<br/>1 Robinsonian conventionalism<br/>2 Pareto optimality<br/>3 Welfare implications of imperfect competition<br/>4 The conventionalist controversy<br/>5 Limitations of approximating laissez-faire<br/>6 Second-best theory vs approximationism<br/>7 The simplicity-generality trade-off<br/>8 Concluding remarks on Robinsonian conventionalism</p><p>5 Methodology as an exercise in economic analysis 99<br/>1 Conventionalist methodology<br/>2 Choice in welfare economics<br/>3 Conventionalist methodological criteria<br/>4 Choice theory in conventionalist methodology<br/>5 The failures of welfare theory<br/>6 The failures of conventionalist methodology<br/>PART III Exploring the Limits of the<br/>Popper-Samuelson Demarcation<br/>6 Uninformative mathematical economic models 119<br/>1 A simple Walrasian general equilibrium model<br/>2 Methodological requirements of explanatory models<br/>3 Methodological requirements of informative models<br/>4 The methodological dilemma at issue<br/>5 The Super Correspondence Principle<br/>6 Falsifiability to the rescue<br/>7 On the impossibility of testability in modern economics 129<br/>1 Tautology vs testability<br/>2 Test criteria as conventions<br/>3 The role of logic in testing<br/>4 The role of models in testing theories<br/>5 The falsification of theories using models<br/>6 The ‘bad news’<br/>8 Model specifications, stochasticism and<br/>convincing tests in economics 141<br/>1 Falsifiability lives in modern economics<br/>2 Overcoming Ambiguity of Direct Model Refutations<br/>3 Stochasticism and econometric models<br/>4 Asymmetries in tests based on stochastic models<br/>5 ‘Normative’ vs ‘positive’ methodology<br/>EPILOGUE Methodology after Samuelson:<br/>Lessons for Methodologists 167<br/>1 The interdependence of sociology and rhetoric<br/>2 History and reality<br/>3 Lessons for would-be methodologists<br/>Bibliography 179<br/>Names Index 189<br/>Subject Index 191</p><p>共37页</p>