Methods of Economics: A Survey of Matters and Methods

In spite of some pessimistic attitudes towards methodology of economics, it has succeeded as a central theme in numerous books, refereed journals, international conferences and symposiums whose volume is increasing at an unprecedented rate. The proliferation of methodological literature also is accompanied by a proliferation of issues that concern: the goals of economics, realism of economics, mathematics and economics, history and economics, ontology and complexity. Economics usually is associated with the hypothetical deductive method. But short-term and cycle analysis of macroeconomics and classical analysis of long-term development do not depend on this method, instead they are carried out within the methodological frameworks of historical-deductive, empirical- inductive or dialectics. This paper focuses on the status and diversity of methodology in economics.