Economists all have basically the same aesthetic when it comes to science yet hardly ever discuss methodology. Practically the only road map to economic methodology was offered nearly a half a century ago when Milton Friedman wrote his famous essay on Positive Economics. There has been little methodological discussion or debate since that time, at least until the last few years. Recently these issues have again come to the fore, due to the many debates associated with how best to include psychological and behavioral factors in economic models. Given this renewed interest in how best to conduct economic research, the time is right for formal consideration of methodological issues in economics. Following up on a successful pre-conference at NYU last year, a series of papers have been written by prominent economists that outline widely varying positions on the appropriate methods for advancing economic understanding. This grant supports a two-day Conference on the Foundations of Economic Methods based on these papers, the proceedings of which are being published by Oxford University Press in a book edited by the investigators of this project. The conference takes place in Spring, 2008 at the Center for Experimental Social Science at New York University.
