Positive economic theory studies. Positive economic theory studies only facts. Excess of goods leads to increased competition between

(positive economics) A branch of economic analysis that examines real economic processes, phenomena that occur in reality, and therefore requires a large amount of institutional and statistical information. Positive economic theory differs from normative economics, which examines trends in economic development. Positive economic theory also analyzes real economic processes, taking into account certain institutional conditions, such as the existence of a monopoly company, or motivating factors, such as profit maximization.

When analyzing those phenomena that can occur based on certain premises, positive economic theory uses models that simulate and simplify ideas about real activity. Economic policy should be based on both positive and normative economic theory. Normative economics helps determine policy goals, and knowledge of positive economics is necessary for those who implement this policy in practice, since any economic policy is doomed to failure if it is unable to achieve tangible results. Economy. Dictionary. - M.: "INFRA-M", Publishing House "Ves Mir".. 2000 .

J. Black. General editor: Doctor of Economics Osadchaya I.M.

POSITIVE ECONOMIC THEORY

part of economic theory that studies and explains observed economic facts, events, processes, establishes a connection between them, in contrast to normative economic theory, which prescribes and advises how economic policy should be pursued and the economy should be managed.. Raizberg B.A., Lozovsky L.Sh., Starodubtseva E.B.. 1999 .

Modern economic dictionary. - 2nd ed., rev. M.: INFRA-M. 479 pp.. 2000 .

Economic dictionary

See what "POSITIVE ECONOMIC THEORY" is in other dictionaries: Part of economic theory designed to answer the question of the size of real economic phenomena and their interrelationship. Dictionary of business terms. Akademik.ru. 2001 ...

Dictionary of business terms- (positive economics), a section of economics, theories that do not contain any value judgments. Considers real economic processes, phenomena occurring in reality. When analyzing those phenomena that are defined. conditions may occur, P.e.t... Peoples and cultures

J. Black. General editor: Doctor of Economics Osadchaya I.M.- POSITIVE ECONOMICS Objective research in economics. theory is called scientific, or positive, economics. theory. Pat. is used when there is an assumption that if event A occurs, it will be followed by event B. This assumption... ... Encyclopedia of Banking and Finance

Dictionary of business terms- POSITIVE ECONOMICS Analysis of actual phenomena in the economy, as opposed to value judgments about what these phenomena should be. For example, the statement that unemployment is growing is based on the real situation in the economy and is confirmed by... ... Dictionary-reference book on economics

Dictionary of business terms- part of economic theory that studies facts and relationships between them... Dictionary of economic terms and foreign words

positive economics- part of economic theory that studies and explains observed economic facts, events, processes, establishes a connection between them, in contrast to normative economic theory, which prescribes, advises how to... ... Dictionary of economic terms

- (see POSITIVE ECONOMIC THEORY) ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Economics and Law

THEORY, POSITIVE ECONOMIC- analysis of facts or data in order to derive scientific generalizations regarding economic behavior ... Large economic dictionary

Economics has long become one of the compulsory academic disciplines. Its study begins at school and ends at the university, regardless of the chosen faculty and specialty. Today, economics is used to explain everything around us, which is why academics in the field often moonlight as business consultants, media analysts, and public policy advisers. As a result, it is very important to understand the difference between statements about the actual state of affairs and conclusions about the need to make certain decisions in the future. Positive and normative economics are two schools of thought that deal with the first and second respectively.

Positive Science

In order to assert something, a scientist always first collects facts. Positive economics studies how the world around us works. Such statements are based on facts and describe the real situation. The presence of the adjective “positive” does not mean that economists working in this direction always bring good news. They make objective conclusions based on facts. Positive economics studies economic reality by using scientific principles to reach testable conclusions.

Regulatory analysis

On the other hand, economists study how a national economy should work. The success of any business and even an individual depends on how productive they are. Normative statements are usually based on evidence, but by themselves they do not describe the real situation in the present. They reflect the opinions, values and standards of the people who express them. Normative analysis is the process of economists providing recommendations on what strategy and course of action a company should take, given its current state and past successes.

Term and its definition

Positive economics is a direction that deals with the description and explanation of the phenomena of economic life. It focuses on facts and cause-and-effect relationships between various events and relationships. Positive economics studies the development and testing of the workings of various theories. It is also called the “value-free” direction (in English - value-free, in German - wertfrei).

Historical reference

Positive economics is a science that deals with the analysis of behavior. A standard theoretical statement of this kind can be found in Paul Samuelson. In his "Fundamentals of Economic Analysis" he gives a whole range of information about how the national economy works. Positive science avoids value judgments. For example, it may describe how money supply growth affects inflation, but it does not indicate what course of action a national government should take. Although positive statements are often used to test the acceptability of economic policies. This direction answers the question “what is,” while normative economics makes recommendations about how things should be. This difference was described by John Neville Keynes and further developed by Milton Friedman.

Methodological basis

In order to obtain factual data or make judgments about it, you need to base it on something. The methodological basis of positive and normative science has always been different. This difference originates in philosophy. Even in Ancient Greece, there were debates about the differences between fact and assessment. The principal proponents of this division were David Hume and George Moore. The logical basis for the relationship between these two types of judgments is philosophical literature. Some scientists argue that only positive economic theory studies the world around correctly. Gunner Myrdal, Geoff Schneider and Jean Shackelford and Diane Strassman advocate that science should be neutral and not message-driven.

Examples of statements of both directions

The difference between the answers to the questions “how it is” and “what it should be” is hard to miss. Positive economic theory studies the first, normative economic theory studies the second. Let's consider three statements:

The unemployment rate in the state was 9% in 2015. This statement is positive because it represents factual, verifiable information about the world around us.
The unemployment rate is too high. Positive economics studies evaluative information about the world, but its conclusions are not the opinion of one of the scientists. This statement is normative. High performance for one may be average for another.
The government needs to take measures to reduce the unemployment rate. Is positive economics the study of what should be? Therefore, this statement is normative. It is advisory in nature, it expresses the opinion of one scientist and does not contain objective factual data.

It is important to understand that both normative statements contain a description of the fact in the first example, but they are not presupposed by it. If three birds were sitting on a branch, and two flew away, then it is clear to any person that only one remains. But an unemployment rate of 9% does not automatically mean that the government needs to take measures to reduce it. Many economic schools generally defend the principle of state non-intervention.

How to convince an economist that you are right?

People often disagree with statements about the world around them. After all, we all have the same number of senses and some experience of observing and interacting with the external environment. Representatives of different economic schools also quite often argue with each other, offering completely opposite conclusions. However, they can be based on the same factual data. Winning a dispute is generally impossible without knowing the difference between positive and normative science.

It is difficult to disagree with a descriptive statement that is based on facts. If the unemployment rate is 9%, then nothing can be done about it. The only option is to challenge the calculation methodology or repeat the collection of statistics. It is much easier to disagree with a normative statement. The positive theory of economic policy studies facts, and it is based on them, but is evaluative in nature. Everyone has the right to their own opinion, so there can be no objectively correct views here.

conclusions

In an ideal world, economists would be scientists who would engage exclusively in positive analysis. In their works they provided factual information about the world around them. In a well-functioning system, there would be no need for constant course correction. But in reality, economists have to do not only this, but also make recommendations. This is why it is so important to distinguish fact from opinion when reading the literature in this area. At the same time, you should always keep in mind that there are no absolutely independent things in the world. Thus, a person is both a biological and a social being. And economics must combine both a positive and normative approach. At least until our world becomes ideal.

The economy is a complex system with several levels. Although all levels are interconnected and interdependent, the principles of functioning of family farms, enterprises and industries differ from the laws of development of the economy as a whole. In this regard, economic theory examines the problems of efficient use of limited resources at different levels.

· Microeconomics explores the interests of business entities, entrepreneurs, businessmen, workers, their needs and motives, market demand and consumer behavior, etc. In other words, microeconomics deals with the laws of functioning of individual subjects in a market economy, studies prices and production volumes in individual markets, factors of supply and demand for individual goods, and features of the behavior of firms in different types of market structures.

· Macroeconomics examines the economic system in the national economy as a whole, considers total (aggregated) indicators of income, employment, price dynamics, and determines the directions of the state’s economic policy. It operates with such categories as aggregate demand and aggregate supply, national income, financial system, inflation, state budget, macroeconomic proportions and their regulation.

· Mesoeconomics, or medium level(the term began to be used relatively recently), involves the study of the laws of functioning of certain subsystems of the national economy in the territorial (region, region, city, district, etc.) or sectoral (industry, agricultural sector, military-industrial complex, etc.) section.

· Megaeconomy, or otherwise - world economy, – explores the most important forms of international economic relations (directly international production, labor migration, capital migration, international monetary relations, international trade).

When studying economic phenomena and processes, positive and normative analysis are used. Accordingly, they distinguish positive And normative economics. If positive economics studies phenomena as they are (or what actually is, the actual state of affairs), then normative economics presupposes the presence of value judgments, ideas about how things should be.

An example of a positive (factual) statement: “If the national currency depreciates, this will contribute to the growth of exports.” An example of a normative (evaluative) statement: “Student scholarships should not be below the subsistence level.”

Features of economic knowledge.
Economic categories, laws, patterns

In economics, as in other spheres of social life, certain objective connections, principles, dependencies and patterns appear, which are revealed by economic theory. Any theory (including economic) is an expression in a system of categories, concepts and laws of relationships and processes of the objective world.

Economic categories– these are logical concepts that reflect in a generalized form the most essential aspects (conditions) of the economic life of society. Categories express individual forms of existence, conditions of existence, and characterize individual aspects of the development of a system of economic relations. In our daily life, we constantly encounter many economic categories, sometimes without even thinking about it: goods, money, prices, income, expenses, budget (including family budget), wages, profit, interest, productivity, etc. .

Cognizing the essence of economic categories, economic theory comes to the definition of economic laws, the study of which is the task of science.

Any law is a necessary essential relationship between phenomena or processes, an expression of the internal connection between them.

There are “natural” (natural) and “social” (social) laws. Social laws include economic laws.

Distinctive features of economic laws:

They are the laws of development of social life, economic activity of people;

Are of a historical nature;

May not correspond to the interests of certain groups of people or classes;

Their action does not occur on its own, but is mediated by the activities of people, so they appear as trends.

Economic laws– these are the dependencies that arise between economic phenomena or processes, expressing their essential nature. Economic dependence, which takes on the status of economic law, is characterized by necessity, stability and repetition.

The interaction of economic categories and laws is realized in economic regularity, which is considered as a trend, an expression of a certain direction in the development of economic processes and phenomena.

1 . In any economy, many issues are resolved: what goods to produce, from what resources, with the help of what technology, how to distribute the received benefits among the participants of the economy. Moreover, in each farm these issues can be resolved differently - depending on certain conditions.

Economic theory is concerned with explaining the principles according to which the production and distribution of goods can be organized in the households of various societies.

Generally speaking, economic theory must explain EVERYTHING that happens in the economy. The economy of any country is a multi-level, multilateral organism, which means that all its aspects cannot be studied by one science. There are several economic sciences, each of which studies its own aspect.

Economic Sciences is a complex of sciences whose functions and tasks include knowledge of the objective laws of the economic system of society in the process of its historical development, statistical processing and theoretical systematization of information about economic life, and the development of practical recommendations.

The classification of economic sciences is carried out according to several criteria, but the most common of them are: 1) the degree of generality of the scope of the object of study and 2) the nature of the attitude towards practice.

4. Positive and normative theories

Economic theory can be positive or normative, depending on the questions it answers. Positive economics studies the real state of the economy and how this state may change as a result of certain events. Positive theory is based on the study of cause-and-effect relationships and reasoning according to the “if-then” principle. For example, “if the price of milk increases, people will buy less of it,” if the company makes more profit, it can expand production* and so on. At the same time, the positive theory does not evaluate all these events from the point of view of “good” or “bad” and approaches them impartially. Normative economic theory answers the question of how the economy should be structured and evaluates all events from the point of view of “good” or “bad.” A normative theory is built on one or more main statements (for example, “all people should be equal”), from which the structure of the entire economy is then derived (for example, “property should belong to everyone equally,” “everyone should work the same hours and receive the same salary” etc.).

Normative theory any event can be assessed (say whether it is good or bad) from the point of view of compliance with this “ideal” state. For example, “raising the price of milk is bad because people should be able to buy cheap milk” or “expanding production is good because more people will get jobs.”

Thus, positive theory studies what IS, and normative theory studies what SHOULD BE.

2 .Economic theory deals with issues such as the organization and regulation of the economy, pricing and monetary income, unemployment, inflation, poverty and inequality, military spending and environmental pollution. Human needs for goods are practically limitless, and the resources for their creation are limited, therefore, the focus of economists is the search for ways to effectively use limited resources in production, material goods to maximally satisfy people's needs. Functions of economic theory:

1. Cognitive, that is, the study and explanation of the economy of society and the presentation of the acquired knowledge in a theoretical form.

2. Methodological, that is, economic theory serves as a theoretical and methodological basis for the entire system of economic sciences.

3. Educational, that is, having economic knowledge, people feel more confident and can correctly make accurate and economic decisions in various life situations.

4. Practical is the development of specific principles and methods of rational farming.

The essence of economic law lies in the expression of the essential connection of the method of production, that is, the specification of the essence of the law is directly related to the disclosure of the essence of this connection, which is predominantly causal, a cause-and-effect relationship, one side of which determines the other.

1. parties to the cause-and-effect relationship;

2. the process of interaction between these parties;

3. forms of interaction between them;

4. the result of this interaction.

The complication of economic life and the interweaving of economic ties, an increase in influencing factors lead to the fact that traditional economic laws are modified and neutralized, manifesting themselves as development trends of a given period or a specific historical era.

There is a system of economic laws in society. They are interconnected. The following economic laws are distinguished:

1. Universal laws - valid at all stages of development of human society, in all socio-economic formations:

i. Laws of rising needs;

ii. Laws of social division of labor;

iii. Laws of increasing labor productivity, etc.

2. General Economic laws - apply in the presence of general socio-economic conditions (commodity-money relations):

i. Laws of value;

ii. Laws of supply and demand;

iii. Laws of monetary circulation and. etc.

(property, government loan, etc.)

3.Methodology.

When studying economic processes, economic theory adopts a number of social methods of cognition, that is, methods that use the natural sciences. Observation and collection of facts (that is, the perception of economic processes in their real form and the collection of facts that occur in reality). For example, you can determine how commodity prices have changed over a given period.

An experiment is the conduct of an artificial scientific experiment, when the object being studied is placed in specially created and controlled conditions. For example, checking the effectiveness of a new remuneration system within a certain group of employees.

Analysis and synthesis. Analysis is the study of an object in parts. Analysis of the cost indicator by cost elements and so on.

Synthesis. This is the study of the object as a whole. For example, the definition of the product cost indicator: as the sum of all costs. Economic theory is divided into microeconomics (firm, price, market) and macroeconomics (country, world economy).

Induction and deduction are two opposing but closely related methods of reasoning. Induction i.e. generalization is the movement of thought from individual facts to a general conclusion. For example, an increase in prices for bread, milk, and so on. Rising prices in the country (inflation).

Deduction is reasoning backwards from a general position to specific conclusions. For example, based on the growing cost of living, you can derive separate indicators of the increase in consumer prices for each type of food.

5. Graphic – it is based on the use of various drawings and drawings, thanks to them, compactness and clarity in the presentation of theoretical material are ensured.

“...those who study economic theory will ultimately achieve greater material success,
than an impatient young man who strives to immediately acquire practical skills.”
P. Samuelson, Nobel Prize winner in economics 1970

Economic theory is the science of the fundamentals of the economic life of society. In its most general form, it is a form of scientific knowledge, a set of provisions and conclusions that reflect one or another aspect of economic activity. .

The goal of economic theory is to achieve the effective use of limited economic resources to maximize the satisfaction of people's material needs - economic relations that arise between people in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods and services, as well as the use of limited resources in national economy .

Like other sciences, economic theory studies objective laws that reflect the essence of economic phenomena, their cause-and-effect relationships, and determine the directions of development of various spheres of the economy.

The more deeply people understand the nature of economic laws, the more effectively they can use them in the sphere of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of material goods. Into the structure of economic theory Microeconomics include micro and macroeconomics.

Macroeconomics associated with the activities of individual economic entities: workers, farmers, landowners, entrepreneurs. It explains how economic decisions are made at the lowest level, for example: how prices are set in an industry, what volume of production a firm should choose to obtain maximum profit. studies the financing of the national economic system based on emerging macroproportions. The objects of its study are gross national product, national income, growth rates labor productivity

in the country, unemployment and inflation. Micro- and macroeconomics are closely interconnected, organically interdependent and interdependent.

Like any science, economic theory performs the following functions: cognitive (theoretical) function
- economic theory is designed to study and explain the processes and phenomena of the economic life of society; practical function
- any knowledge is valuable not in itself, but in its ability to serve as a guide to action, the implementation of practical goals of improving society. Economic theory must, having penetrated into the very essence of economic life, reveal the laws governing economic processes and suggest ways of using them; methodological function - economic theory acts as the theoretical foundation of a whole complex of economic sciences - sectoral (industrial economics, agriculture, transport, construction, etc.), functional (economics and sociology of labor, finance

, money circulation and credit, economic statistics, etc.).

Economic theory applies a wide range of methods of scientific knowledge, and, first of all, these are the methods of formal logic - analysis and synthesis, methods of induction and deduction, comparison, analogy, hypothesis, certain laws of thinking. – a method of cognition consisting in dividing the whole into its component parts for ease of study; synthesis – continuation of analysis, consisting of combining individual elements into a single whole. Economic analysis is the scientific basis for making management decisions in business.
Induction method – this is a method of cognition based on the ability to make inferences, following from the particular to the general; deduction method - a method that allows you to make conclusions based on the general to the specific.
Comparison – a method that determines the similarity or difference of phenomena and processes. It is widely used in the systematization and classification of concepts, as it allows you to correlate the unknown with the known, and express the new through existing concepts.
Analogy – a method of cognition based on the transfer of one or a number of properties from a known phenomenon to an unknown one. Analogy is a special case of induction. It plays an important role in making assumptions and obtaining new knowledge.
Hypothesis – a method of cognition that consists in putting forward a scientifically based assumption about the possible causes or connections of phenomena and processes. A hypothesis arises when new facts appear that contradict the old theory.

Since theory without facts can be empty, and facts without theory are meaningless, a distinction is made between positive and normative economics (positive and normative analysis). Positive Economics deals with facts that have been selected and transferred to the level of theory, i.e. with already free from subjective judgments and representing economic behavior. Against, normative economics expresses subjective value judgments about what should be. Example of a positive factual statement: Other things being equal, if tuition fees increase, then the number of applicants to the university will decrease. A normative statement on the same topic: there should be no talk about university tuition fees at all, otherwise the number of applicants will increase.

Also widely used in economic theory mathematical and statistical methods , which make it possible to identify the quantitative side of processes and phenomena of economic life, their transition to a new quality. Recently, methods have become especially important forecasting and modeling economic processes. Forecasting means a special scientific research aimed at identifying the prospects for the development of the economic process; modeling - a formalized description of an economic process or phenomenon, whose structure is determined by the objective properties and the subjective target nature of the study.

Economic theory is based on the following principles :

principle of limited resources;
the principle of interaction between theory and practice;
the principle of unity of macro- and microanalysis;
the principle of ambiguity in the actions of the laws of economics in various historical conditions.

Thus, economic theory is a science that studies economic principles, laws, and problems of effective use of limited resources in order to achieve maximum satisfaction of people's needs.