Abstract

RUBINSTEIN, Ariel. DILEMMAS OF AN ECONOMIC THEORIST. Rev.econ.inst. [online]. 2006, vol.8, n.14, pp.191-213. ISSN 0124-5996.

What on earth are economic theorists like me trying to accomplish? The paper discusses four dilemmas encountered by an economic theorist: i) the dilemma of absurd conclusions: should we abandon a model if it produces absurd conclusions or should we regard a model as a very limited set of assumptions which will inevitably fail in some contexts?; ii) the dilemma of responding to evidence: should our models be judged according to experimental results?; iii) the dilemma of model-less regularities: should models provide the hypothesis for testing or are they simply exercises in logic which have no use in identifying regularities?, and iv) the dilemma of relevance: do we have the right to offer advice or to make statements which are intended to influence the real world?

Keywords : dilemmas; economic theory; absurd conclusions; relevance.

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