Models, Mathematics, and Methodology in Economic Explanation

Description

This book provides a practitioner's foundation for the process of explanatory model building, breaking down that process into five stages. Donald W. Katzner presents a concrete example with unquantified variable values to show how the five-stage procedure works. He describes what is involved in explanatory model building for those interested in this practice, while simultaneously providing a guide for those actually engaged in it. The combination of Katzner's focus on modeling and on mathematics, along with his focus on the explanatory performance of modeling, promises to become an important contribution to the field. Cover Front Matter Title Copyright Table of Contents Preface 1 Introduction 2 Economic Models and Explanation 3 The Stages of Model Building in Economics 3.1 Model Construction 3.2 The Difficulty with Ignoring Stages (i), (ii), and (v) 3.3 Models and Their Relation to the Real World 3.4 Recapitulation and Further Commentary 4 Models and Mathematics 5 Models and Measurement (or Lack Thereof) 5.1 Simultaneous Relations 5.2 Change Over Time 5.3 Optimization 5.4 Empirical Testing 5.5 Concluding Remark 6 Issues Relating to the Construction of Models from Scratch 6.1 Arithmomorphic Abstraction 6.2 Time and Change 6.3 From Process to Function 6.4 Limits and Power 7 An Example: The Efficiency of Organizational Forms 7.1 Preliminaries: Stage (i) 7.2 The Model: Stage (ii) 7.3 Administrative Cost Efficiency: Stage (iii) 7.4 Allocative Efficiency: Stage (iii) 7.5 The Potential for Empirical Testing: Stage (iv) 7.6 Cogency and Relevance: Stage (v) 8 The Implicit Assumption Requirements of Later-Stage Model Building 8.1 The Problem in Physics Terms 8.2 The Problem in Economic Terms 8.3 Concluding Remark 9 Ordinality and the Adequacy of Analytic Specification 9.1 The Three Approaches 9.2 Scale Transformations under Approach C 9.3 Preserving Functional Forms 9.4 Recapitulation and Further Commentary 10 Categories of Models 10.1 Individualism Versus Structuralism 10.2 Static Models Versus Dynamic Models 10.3 Certainty versus Uncertainty 11 Conclusion Index