Doing Economic Research.

• Author: Montgomery, Michael R.

This slim volume contains thirteen essays, all but one - chapter 8 - previously unpublished, eleven written specifically for this book. Thomas Mayer, Professor Emeritus at the University of California-Davis, brings to his task considerable expertise both in methodology and in mainstream [macro]economic research. Mayer's focus is on applied methodology, which is seen as less of a judge of current research practices, than as just another useful aid to the applied economist. Mayer demonstrates the vitality of his theme with a succession of insights about current controversies (theoretical and empirical, macro and micro). Methodologists will be pleased with Mayer's consistent ability to link these practical insights to "deeper" principles. The pragmatic working economist, meanwhile, will find the insights interesting in their own right (and also may come away with a deeper respect for methodological inquiry).

The thirteen chapters can be read in any sequence. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the reader to Mayer's main theme of "low-brow" methodology as a force for good. Methodology's influence can be liberating rather than constraining to the working economist; e.g., by contextualizing economists' practices through comparing them to scientific standards elsewhere, and by identifying outdated philosophy-of-science maxims still exerting undeserved influence in economics. To play this role more effectively, however, methodologists need to "come down from the mountaintop" and learn more about the day-to-day problems faced by the working economist.

Chapter 3 is an essay on positivism in economics. Mayer argues that, while positivism has been refuted as philosophy of science, its nostrums, taken in moderation, still provide useful research guidelines for practicing economists. The argument is a good example of methodology defending - not attacking - the basic research orientation of modern economics.

Chapters 4, 5, and 8 - a trio of applied methodological essays - will interest the macroeconomist most. Those who insist that all macro must be founded on representative-agent "microfoundations" should read Chapter 4. Applied methodology puts this claim into proper perspective - as a species of reductionism, a position considered questionable elsewhere. Mayer points out why a mandate for reductionism in economics is wrong-headed (reduction to what? why the Walrasian paradigm and not game theory, or imperfect-markets, or psychology itself?). Macro should be...