Document Type
Article
Abstract
Economists have rather a guilty conscience about values. Many of them aspire to a "scientific" form of analysis, a discipline built solely on positive propositions about how economies function. Such a collection of descriptive, causal statements, "if A, then B," would serve as the foundation of all policy analysis. Normative propositions,--one (society, the government) ought to do A,-would then follow from the choice of B as a valued objective. Economists might recommend A as policy, but strictly speaking their functions as scientific economists end once they have demonstrated the causal linkage from A to B. Their values with respect to B stand on the same footing as those of any other citizen. The role played by the "scientific" economist in policy formation is simply that of establishing the menu of possible choices, the framework of positive constraints, from which a society makes its selections."
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Citation Information
Evans, R. G..
"Slouching Toward Chicago: Regulatory Reform as Revealed Religion."
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
20.3 (1982)
: 454-484.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1984
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol20/iss3/3
