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From The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition, 2008
Edited by
Steven
N.
Durlauf
and
Lawrence
E.
Blume
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Abstract
Philosophical analysis of the historical development of modelling, as well as the programmatic statements of the founders of modelling, support three different functions for modelling: for fitting theories to the world; for theorizing; and as instruments of investigation. Rather than versions of data or of theories, models can be understood as complex objects constructed out of many resources that defy simple description. These accounts also suggest a kinship between the ways models work in economics and various kinds of experiment, found most obviously in simulation but equally salient in older traditions of mathematical and statistical modelling.
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Keywords
business cycles; caricatures; correspondence rules; Cowles Commission; design of experiments; econometrics; economic man; Edgeworth, F.Y; experiments and econometrics; Fisher, I.; Friedman, M.; Frisch, R.A.K.; Haavelmo, T.; ideal type; instrumentalism; idealization; inference; Koopmans. T.C.; laboratory experiments in economics; Lucas, R.; macroeconometric models; matching; mathematical economics; mathematics and economics; metaphor; methodology of economics; Mill, J.S.; Marshall, A.; model design; models; model construction; model functions; model experiments; National Bureau of Economic Research; Pigou, A.C.; prediction; probability; Quesnay, F.; random shock models; Shubik, M.; simulation; Slutsky, E.; Sutton, J.; statistical inference; statistics and economics; Tableau économique; tendency laws; testing; Tinbergen, J.; Weber, M.Back to top
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How to cite this article
Morgan, Mary S. "models." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 19 January 2012 <http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_M000391> doi:10.1057/9780230226203.1112
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