How can economics be an inductive science?

摘要

Economics is awash in data, and the vast majority of published articles are empirical. Yet the question that animates Julian Reiss's new book, Error in Economics, is, can economics canbe made into an evidence-based (or at least a more evidence-based) science? In Reiss's view there is something wrong with the evidential base of economics, and his purpose is to set it right. His is not a systematic account, which is both a plus and a minus. It is a plus in that, in lieu of a systematic account, he treats a number of cases in rich detail - especially, the proposed reform of the US consumer price index (the Boskin Commission), Card and Krueger's famous minimum-wage study, and Angrist's natural experiment aimed at teasing out the effects of military service on lifetime income.