Were the foundations of measurement without theory laid in the 1920s? | Vidéo | Carmin.tv

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Were the foundations of measurement without theory laid in the 1920s?

By Pierre-Charles Pradier

Appears in collection : Mathematical communities in the reconstruction after the Great War (1918-1928) / Les communautés mathématiques dans la reconstruction de l'après-guerre (1918-1928)

In his 1947 essay, Tjalling Koopmans criticized the development of an empirical science that had no theoretical basis, what he referred to as measurement without theory. The controversy over the status of relations based on mere statistical inference has not ceased since then. Instead of looking for the contemporary consequences, however, I will inquire into its early beginnings. As early as the 1900s, Walras, Pareto and Juglar exchanged views on the status of theory and its relation to economic data. These private exchanges acquired the status of scientific controversy in the aftermath of the First World War, with the dissemination of Pareto’s work. It is precisely this moment that I will try to grasp, when engineers began to read and write pure economic treatises, questioning the relation between theory and empirical problems, the nature of their project and the expectations that the subsequent development of economics has tried to fulfill.

Cournot Centre session devoted to the transformations that took place in mathematical economics during the interwar period.

Information about the video

Date of recording 14/11/2018
Date of publication 22/11/2018
Institution CIRM
Licence CC BY NC ND
Language French
Director(s) Guillaume Hennenfent
Format MP4

Citation data

DOI 10.24350/CIRM.V.19475503
Cite this video Pradier, Pierre-Charles (14/11/2018). Were the foundations of measurement without theory laid in the 1920s?. CIRM. Audiovisual resource. DOI: 10.24350/CIRM.V.19475503
URL https://dx.doi.org/10.24350/CIRM.V.19475503

Domain(s)

Bibliography

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Juglar C. (1862). Des crises commerciales et de leur retour périodique en France, en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis. Paris : Guillaumin et Cie - https://archive.org/details/sc_0000980533_00000000672529/page/n5
Koopmans T. (1937). Linear regression analysis of economic time series. PhD dissertation. Universiteit Leiden, 150 p.
Koopmans T. (1947). Measurement without theory. Review of Economics and Statistics, 29(3), 161-172 - http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1928627
Mitchell, W.C. (1913). Business cycles. Berkeley : University of California Press - https://archive.org/details/cu31924003462680/page/n7
Popper K. (1959). The logic of scientific discovery. London: Hutchinson and Co. - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134470020

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http://www.centre-cournot.org

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