On the Reliability of Economic Models

This volume represents a contribution to the philosophy of economics. The contributors have selected particular areas of economics and have probed these areas for the philosophical and methodological issues that they raise. The primary essays are written by philosophers concentrating on issues that arise at the level of the everyday theoretical practice of working economists. Commentary essays are provided by working economists responding to the philosophical arguments from the standpoint of their own disciplines. The volume thus aims to represent something of an "experiment" in the philosophy of science, striving as it does to explore methodological issues across two research communities. The purpose of the volume is to try and stimulate a discussion of the epistemology and methodology of economics that works at the level of detail of existing "best practice" in economics today. The contributors have designed their contributions to stimulate productive conversation between philosophers and economists on topics in the methodology of economics.