This paper is concerned with two issues. First, it discusses some of the main problems and inferences the methodological approach of critical realism raises for empirical work in economics, while considering an approach adopted to try to overcome these problems. Second, it provides a concrete...

This paper examines the causes of the general decline in the value of the euro by assessing the various explanations proffered in existing literature, then offering a more satisfactory explanation. The argument prevalent in the literatureCthat the decline in value of the euro is due to AU.S....

Critical realism has become increasingly influential in employment relations research and has a presence across the human sciences. This article argues that the critical realist ontology has surface appeal for local and specific case study research but is fundamentally at variance with the...

China faces a shortfall in its provision of affordable housing. This paper explores the potential to use Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to address these supply problems. A review of the housing market and an examination of its historical development is presented. This is followed by an...

This paper investigates property forecasting accuracy and its improvement. As it suggests, despite increased sophistication of property market modelling and forecasting, there still remains a degree of inaccuracy between model outputs and actual property market performance. Subsequently, the...

Lionel Robbins, in his famous Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, correctly showed that the task of economics is to develop, step by step, a realistic comprehension of the economic system based upon the abstract starting point of a theory of value. His mistake was to think...

The paper investigates whether complex property market forecasting techniques are better at forecasting than simple specifications. As the research and initial modelling results suggest, simple models outperform the more complex structures. It therefore calls analysts to make forecasts more...

This paper critiques the critical realist conception of social relations as 'deep' structures separate from 'surface' social activities. The alternative conception offered by 'systematic dialectics' is advocated. Systematic dialectics takes a system-wide perspective on the contemporary economic...