| >do they use the scientific method? yes. it's science. "The scientific method is the process of objectively establishing facts through testing and experimentation" [1] But economics does not objectively establish facts, it establishes subjective facts. Since every "experiment" is conducted in theory or in a simulation at best, and not in the real market - it pretends to investigate reality when in fact all it experiments with is pick-and-choose model of that reality. That picking and choosing is a very subjective process, hence why we can have chicago and marxists economists both claiming each their "scientific" correctness. Take a look at the papers that just won the nobel prize. Not a single one of them is a repeatable experiment, because such a thing is impossible in real-market economics. The market changes at all times, and is unique at all times. Economics can only be a science if we accept that science does not have to able to produce repeteable experiments, merely the attempt of doing so is enough to qualify as science. [1] https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/scientific-meth.... |
But with people and money there are few rules written down and even the goals of the decision makers are as varied as the decision makers themselves. The things used to facilitate trade themselves vary over time and nature.
Probably why Econ theory tends to better characterized as Econ philosophy. It might need/probably has to be studied with something like science but modified to be able to study the phenomena of scarce resource allocation.