Conference on the Foundations of Economic Models-New York, NY Spring 2008

当涉及到科学时，经济学家们基本上都有相同的审美，但很少讨论方法论。实际上，经济学方法论的唯一路线图是近半个世纪前米尔顿•弗里德曼（Milton Friedman）撰写著名论文《实证经济学》（Positive Economics）时提供的。从那时起，至少直到最近几年，很少有关于方法论的讨论或辩论。最近，由于有关如何在经济模型中最好地包括心理和行为因素的许多争论，这些问题再次出现。鉴于人们对如何最好地开展经济研究重新产生了兴趣，现在正是正式考虑经济学方法论问题的时候。继去年纽约大学（NYU）一次成功的会议前会议之后，著名经济学家撰写了一系列论文，概述了在促进经济理解的适当方法上的广泛不同立场。这笔拨款将支持以这些论文为基础的为期两天的经济方法基础会议，这些论文的论文集将由牛津大学出版社出版，由该项目的研究人员编辑出版。会议将于2008年春季在纽约大学实验社会科学中心举行。

Economists all have basically the same aesthetic when it comes to science yet hardly ever discuss methodology. Practically the only road map to economic methodology was offered nearly a half a century ago when Milton Friedman wrote his famous essay on Positive Economics. There has been little methodological discussion or debate since that time, at least until the last few years. Recently these issues have again come to the fore, due to the many debates associated with how best to include psychological and behavioral factors in economic models. Given this renewed interest in how best to conduct economic research, the time is right for formal consideration of methodological issues in economics. Following up on a successful pre-conference at NYU last year, a series of papers have been written by prominent economists that outline widely varying positions on the appropriate methods for advancing economic understanding. This grant supports a two-day Conference on the Foundations of Economic Methods based on these papers, the proceedings of which are being published by Oxford University Press in a book edited by the investigators of this project. The conference takes place in Spring, 2008 at the Center for Experimental Social Science at New York University.