Methodological institutionalism as a transformation of structural econometrics

Abstract

I agree with Nell and Errouaki that an econometrics based on neoclassical economic theory fails to develop any insight into deep structures. But my methodology differs slightly from theirs because of my view that an econometrics based on any economic theory would fail in this sense. Economics is an inexact science, incapable of providing a complete set of causal factors to explain any economic phenomenon. I arrive at a different call for more fieldwork in econometrics due to a somewhat different reading of the criticisms of Trygve Haavelmo, Wassily Leontief, the young Tjalling Koopmans and Oskar Morgenstern. These economists not only shared the idea that economic structure is different in nature from natural laws and that statistical analysis alone is not enough to arrive at knowledge of this structure, but also that economic theory as an additional source of knowledge would not be sufficient either. Another additional source of knowledge is needed—that is, field expertise.