SOME METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

From the financial crisis of 2007/2008 mainstream economic theory is in crisis. Most mainstream economists not only did not anticipate the depth of the crisis but not even considered that something like that was possible. This state of things has reawakened the interest in methodological issues in economic analysis. In this article some outstanding questions in economic methodology are analyzed. They are: the difference between economic science and natural sciences; how refutation works in economics;the possibilities of predicting in this science; the use of the mathematics; the relation between positive and normative economics and, finally, explores the possibility of using the complexity approach in economics.