The Biased Balance: Observation, Formalism and Interpretation of a Dissymmetric Measuring Device

20 Pages Posted: 25 Jul 2007

See all articles by Marc Le Menestrel

Marc Le Menestrel

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences

Date Written: January 2007

Abstract

This paper studies a balance whose unobservable fulcrum is not necessarily located at the middle of its two pans. It presents three different models, showing how this lack of symmetry modifies the observation, the formalism and the interpretation of such a biased measuring device. It argues that the biased balance can be an interesting source of inspiration for broadening the representational theory of measurement.

Keywords: Representational theory of measurement, biased measurement, bias, rationality, irrationality, observer, dependence, indeterminacy, invariance

JEL Classification: A0, B4, C0, D0

Suggested Citation

Le Menestrel, Marc, The Biased Balance: Observation, Formalism and Interpretation of a Dissymmetric Measuring Device (January 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1002856 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1002856

Marc Le Menestrel (Contact Author)

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences ( email )

Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27
Barcelona, 08005
Spain
34 93 542 27 23 (Phone)
34 93 542 17 46 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
38
Abstract Views
572
PlumX Metrics