Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/168436 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Discussion Papers No. 2017-59
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
Economics is currently experiencing a climate of uncertainty regarding the soundness of its theoretical framework and even its status as a science. Much of the criticism is within the discipline, and emphasizes the alleged failure of the neoclassical viewpoint. This article proposes the deployment of partial modeling, utilizing Boolean networks (BNs), as an inductive discovery procedure for the development of economic theory. The method is presented in detail and then linked to the Semantic View of Theories (SVT), closely identified with Bas van Fraassen and Patrick Suppes, in which models are construed as mediators creatively negotiating between theory and reality. It is suggested that this approach may be appropriate for economics and, by implication, for any science in which there is no consensus theory, and a wide range of viewpoints compete for acceptance.
Subjects: 
Economic models
history of economic theory
complexity economics
computational modeling
Boolean networks
semantic view of theories
JEL: 
B41
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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