This essay traces the vein of thought represented by Calabresi’s The Costs of Accidents, both backward in time to examine its sources, and forward to its impact on current scholarship. I focus on three broad topics: positive versus normative law and economics, positivist versus anti-positivist thinking in law; and the assumption of rationality in law and economics. ∗ Professor of Law and Paul J...

his paper investigates the conformity of market participants’ decisions with the Islamic codes of conduct from the economic and philosophical perspectives. At the outset, the contributions of the renowned contemporary Muslim philosophers on the epistemological issues between the “is” and the “ought” are presented. Subsequently, a synthesized construct that would resolve the dichotomy between th...

The relationship between Austrian economics and behavioral economics is a complex and multifaceted one. On the one hand, behavioral economics rejects the positive claims of modern, standard neoclassical economics and yet accepts its normative standards. Thus behavioral economics is itself a hybrid; it is part psychological economics and part neoclassical economics. Furthermore, many behavioral ...

For most of the twentieth century, comparative economics asked one question: capitalism or socialism? The particulars of the question took many forms, both: positive and normative, from stark contrasts to shaded nuances (e.g., 'the mixed economy'), but the central theme was always planning versus markets. By contrast, the 'new comparative economics' (e.g., Djankov, et al. 2003) draws on diverse...

The article points out the limits of Austrian economics in so far as the passage from positive to normative economics is concerned. We propose a comparison with neoclassical economics and discuss the different theoretical solutions adopted by these two schools of thought in their legitimization of the normative discourse. The bridge from positive to normative economics is analyzed as resting up...

In his admirable book on The Scope and Method of Political Economy John Neville Keynes distinguishes among “a positive science ... a body of systematized knowledge concerning what is; a normative or regulative science...[,] a body of systematized knowledge discussing criteria of what ought to be...[,]an art... [,] a system of rules for the attainment of a given end”; comments that “confusion be...

This paper examines behavioral economics’ use of the positive-normative distinction in its critique of standard rational choice theory as normative, and argues that it departs from Robbins’ understanding of that distinction in ways that suggest behavioral economists themselves do not observe that distinction. One implication of this is that behavioral economists generally do not recognize Putna...

Abstract Normative welfare economics commonly assumes that individuals’ preferences can be reliably inferred from their choices and relies on preference satisfaction as the normative standard for welfare. In recent years, several authors have criticized economists’ reliance advocated grounding opportunities rather than preferences. this paper, I argue although preference-based approaches to fac...

A little more than a decade ago, Nathan Berg asked the question why behavioral economics had not yet inspired a reorientation of normative economics. Given the ever rising interest in the new, psychologically informed economics, the present paper will outline the way reasoning about the normative implications of behavioral economics has developed since Berg raised the issue. We argue that behav...

This paper discusses both the opportunities for and the challenges associated with integrating economics and ecology in the study of ecosystem services. We distinguish between integration in positive versus normative analysis. There is rapid growth in positive research that combines the two disciplines to provide insight and better understanding of the bidirectional linkage between economic and...