Mongin, Philippe (2006) On the confirmation of the law of demand. Discussion paper, Steuer, Max (ed.) (DP 78/06). Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London, UK.
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Abstract
The paper applies confirmation theory to a famous statement of economics, the law of demand, which says that ceteris paribus, prices and quantities demanded change in opposite directions. Today's economists do not accept the law unless definite restrictions hold, and have shown little interest in deciding whether or not these restrictions were satisfied empirically. However, Hildenbrand (1994) has provided a new derivation of the law of aggregate demand and used this theoretical advance to devise a test that may be the first rigorous one ever performed on the law. The paper accounts for Hildenbrand's and, in less detail, his predecessors' contributions within the philosophical framework of Hempel (1965) and Glymour (1980). Its salient result is that economists have accepted the "consequence condition", and rejected the "converse consequence condition", and thus implicitly adhered to a Hempelian- Glymourian view of confirmation and testability.
| Item Type: | Monograph (Discussion Paper) |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.lse.ac.uk/CPNSS/home.aspx |
| Additional Information: | © 2006 The Author |
| Divisions: | CPNSS |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Jul 2014 13:21 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Sep 2024 20:01 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/58432 |
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