Teorie e realtà nel mondo dell'economia quantitativa

Economic science and economic reality move on together as the first mainly aims at explaining the second, by interpreting its past and the present, trying to rule the present itself, anticipating and trying to rule its future. Economic science aims at knowing economic reality in order to increase human control over it. That is why positive and normative aspects, being these latter rules and plans of action and control, are part of what economic science is about. The question whether economic science is closer to the mathematical sciences, moral sciences or empirical ones has been discussed for a long time. This is not the place to start such an interesting discussion again, but let us just assert that economic science does have its own method, which also borrows from other sciences and other methods that better suit particular problems. But at the end economic science has its own methods which include at least three elements simultaneously: (i) analytical-theoretical elements; (ii) stylized elements of economic facts (factual-theoretical elements); (iii) policy elements (normative-theoretical elements). Then, if by economic science we mean a ‘complete’ system of cognitions, we can say that three partial, complementary and necessary elements contribute to such a construction: the analytical-theoretical ones; the factual-theoretical ones; the normative-theoretical ones. The reference to the “theoretical” attribute shows their generality, while the specification (empirical, analytical, normative) shows their non-completeness. Such “definition” is consistent with the general lines of thought defining economic science as a set of theories, models, theorems where different methods (analytical-theoretical; factual-theoretical; normative-theoretical) and different tools (mathematical, econometric, historical, logical, analogic-acquisitive from other sciences, etc.) have contributed with variab1e roles to their specification and construction to understand and control economic facts. In what follows we will see the way the afore-mentioned elements and, in particular, the analytical tools have helped in defining some of the most important general theories in economics. We will try also to explain which problems nowadays need to be solved to avoid the fragmentation of such a unitary science as, if such already strong fragmentation increase, economics would fail in its main purpose, which is to explain and try to rule reality.