Economics, History, and Causation
18 Pages Posted: 18 Jan 2011 Last revised: 28 Jul 2024
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Economics, History, and Causation
Economics, History, and Causation
Date Written: January 2011
Abstract
Economics and history both strive to understand causation: economics using instrumental variables econometrics and history by weighing the plausibility of alternative narratives. Instrumental variables can lose value with repeated use because of an econometric tragedy of the commons bias: each successful use of an instrument potentially creates an additional latent variable bias problem for all other uses of that instrument - past and future. Economists should therefore consider historians' approach to inferring causality from detailed context, the plausibility of alternative narratives, external consistency, and recognition that free will makes human decisions intrinsically exogenous.
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