A modelling strategy that accounts for measurement outside the laboratory, where one cannot base measurements on a single simple law, will have to drop the requirement that the model is a homomorphic mapping of the empirical relational structure. The model used for measurement will be a...

Mathematical models are instruments of investigation, epistemological equivalent to the microscope and the telescope. In comparing the epistemological difference between models and experiments, Morgan (2005) argues that experiments offer greater epistemic power than models as a means to...

A model of a decision problem frames that problem in three dimensions: sample space, target probability and information structure. Each specific model imposes a specific rational decision. As a result, different models may impose different, even contradictory, rational decisions, creating choice...

How did the meteorologist Buys Ballot and the actuary Landré deal with errors produced by measuring methods? The method of least squares is most appropriate for dealing with measurement errors produced by precise measuring instruments. But how should one proceed in meteorology where one has to...

Trygve Haavelmo's methodological manifesto "The Probability Approach in Econometrics" not only laid down the paradigm for the research pursued at the Cowles Commission, but also sets out a strategy for measurement outside the laboratory. His conceptualization of "passive observation" is still...

There is a long standing tradition that presents economic activity in terms of fluids flowing around the economy. This idea lies behind a small but influential tradition of hydraulic modelling in economics. However, there is space between using the metaphor of money (or goods) flowing between a...

Generally, simulations are carried out to answer specific questions. The assessment of the reliability of an answer depends on the kind of question investigated. The answer to a 'why' question is an explanation. The premises of an explanation have to include invariant relationships, and thus the...

The Representational Theory of Measurement conceives measurement as establishing homomorphisms from empirical relational structures into numerical relation structures, called models. Models function as measuring instruments by transferring observations of an economic system into quantitative...

The metrology literature neglects a strong empirical measurement tradition in economics, which is different from the traditions as accounted for by the formalist representational theory of measurement. This empirical tradition comes closest to Mari's characterization of measurement in which he...

Halfway through the 1930s, a new practice was born that was based on instruments called 'models'. This practice is characterized by building and applying empirical models, i.e. representations of (aspects of) the world. The aim of this chapter is to explore these kinds of representations