Positive and normative economics, Macroeconomics

Assignment Help:

POSITIVE AND NORMATIVE ECONOMICS


Economics as a social science adopts an analytical approach to the study of changes in economic variables on the actions of human beings. The scientific approach to the analysis of economic events, commonly referred to as positive economics, concerns itself with statements that are capable of verification by reference to the facts. For instance, "If the price of cloth is higher, people will buy less" or, "As the money in the economy increases, the price level will go up". We can statistically estimate the relationship between cloth prices and sales or between the money supply and general price level. In principle all positive statements should be reducible to some form which is testable by reference to empirical evidence. As a doctrine, the advocates of this part of economic science, would argue that economic science does not and should not encompass statements that involve value judgements, i.e. statements of the form 'x is good or bad'. According to them, such would be the province of normative economics and that economists cannot make any statements involving value judgements.


Normative economics involves prescriptions or statements about "what ought to be", rather than "what is". It involves the advocacy of specific policy prescriptions, because it uses ethical judgements as well as knowledge of positive economics. Contrary to positive economic statements, normative economic statements cannot be tested before they are accepted or rejected. Normative economics gives rise to statements such as "corporate sector should not maximize profits", or "monopolies should be regulated". This type of economics may be contrasted with positive economics which is concerned with describing and analyzing the economic phenomenon as it is.

 


Related Discussions:- Positive and normative economics

Expected profit or loss for the university, The enrollment in a course offe...

The enrollment in a course offered by the College of Business is random and is described by the following probability distribution: there is a 9% chance of 18 students, 22% chance

Why does yield on UK gov bond go up when stock markets down?, Doesn''t mone...

Doesn''t money move out of stock markets into bond? If more people buy bonds does this not push bond prices up and yields down? My question is about this quote from the Gardian tod

Show factors that govern the price elasticity of demand, Q. Show factors th...

Q. Show factors that govern the Price Elasticity of Demand? a. The number and closeness of the substitutes- The more and the better the substitutes, the grater is the Price Ela

Lagrangian of the consumer, This problem substitutes financial health with ...

This problem substitutes financial health with housing in a 2 period consumption savings model. The representative consumer has the utility function u(c1, c2) = lnc1 + lnc2 with ea

#.., what are the purposes of taxation

what are the purposes of taxation

How to find nominal gdp in the current year, Consider an economy that produ...

Consider an economy that produces only three types of fruit: apples, oranges & bananas. In the base year the production & price data are as follows: Fruit

Equilibrium quantity of widgets, Use the model in the tax incidence applica...

Use the model in the tax incidence application to determine the effect of a given change in the tax on widget, change in T, on the equilibrium quantity of widgets. How does your an

Compute the sample mean, Joans Nursery specializes in custom-designed lands...

Joans Nursery specializes in custom-designed landscaping for residential areas. The estimated labor cost associated with a particular landscaping proposal is based on the number of

Events x and y are mutually exclusive, The events X and Y are mutually excl...

The events X and Y are mutually exclusive. Suppose P(X)=.05 and P(Y) =.02. What is the probability of either X or Y occurring? What is not probability of X nor Y happens?

Determine total cost of product, Pucker Lemonade, Inc., is a small company ...

Pucker Lemonade, Inc., is a small company that produces bottled lemonade. Pucker's fixed cost includes the monthly rental cost of the lemon-smashing machines, the bottling machines

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd