Verification in Economics and History

The scientifization process within economics and history has fostered the growth of knowledge in both disciplines. Many economists and some historians are, however, as this book argues, becoming too confident in applying methods drawn from the pure sciences to their own studies. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the attitude of econometricians and clinometricians to verification. Verification - in the broadest sense, procedures by which theoretical conclusions are related to empirical data - is a necessary stage in any scholarly investigation. In disciplines like economics and history, a verification process confronts difficulties not encountered in sciences where laboratory conditions prevail. Outside the pure sciences human action is the determinant - phenomena are not easily quantifiable, elements cannot be isolated for observation and events cannot be repeated. Conclusions, therefore, can only be conditional. At the same time, data is often theory-heavy, taking the form of abstractions and, frequently, approximations. Using this kind of data, therefore, to test a theory is a circular process as the empirical nature of the exercise is lost.
This work argues the case for some aspects of verification procedures being useful and applicable outside the pure sciences and in the service of less concrete subjects, particularly with regard to history and economics. This book should be of interest to lecturers and students of economics, history and philosophy.