Explanation and causality: Some suggestions from econometrics

✍ Scribed by Maria Carla Galavotti

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 847 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-7411
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00135896

✦ Synopsis

After having been in disgrace for a relatively long period, the notion of causality has occupied a central place in the epistemological debate during the last three decades. In particular, the probabilistic approach to causality has been the object of much attention and analysis. In the meantime, the notion of explanation has undergone a reappraisal, and its relation to causality has been thoroughly reconsidered. These studies have given rise to various views, inspired by different philosophical convictions.

Unlike what has happened in well-established natural sciences like physics, in the social sciences causality has always occupied a central role, and has never been banned as useless or even noxious. On the contrary, in this field such a notion has been given a rather original interpretation. This holds especially for econometrics, where causality has always been taken as a fundamental research tool.

In what follows the main results achieved by the econometric literature on causality will be surveyed schematically. This will point to a notion of causality that can be seen as a combination of functionalism with a manipulative view, where a central role is played by the concept of model. Such results will then be compared with the views on explanation and causality upheld by epistemologists, and possibilities of integrating them will be suggested.

To start with, the main features of the epistemological debate on explanation and causality will be recalled. This will provide the ground for a comparison with the views put forward within econometrics.