Evidencia y Explicación en Economía

modelos, RCTs y su amalgama

Autores/as

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35588/cc.v2i1.4907

Palabras clave:

Causalidad, Mecanismos, Capacidades, Epistemología de la Economía, Generalización de Evidencia

Resumen

En economía, la investigación se divide en dos grandes metodologías: los modelos teórico-matemáticos y los estudios empíricos. Estudiando modelos teóricos y métodos empíricos (ejemplificados en Randomized Controlled Trial (i.e. RCT)) se da cuenta de las limitaciones de ambos métodos. Se concluye que ninguno de estos puede generar explicaciones de cómo en realidad suceden las cosas, sino que solo de cómo posiblemente suceden. La razón es que ambos necesitan un enlace interpretativo que permita extrapolar desde su propio sistema (i.e. el del modelo y el del estudio empírico, respectivamente) hacia un sistema objetivo.

Los modelos tienen dominio general y pueden dar cuenta de mecanismos. Los RCTs, al contrario, son válidos internamente (si cumplen ciertas condiciones) y están conectados al mundo real, pero su dominio es muy específico. Aunque ninguno logre responder preguntas amplias de un fenómeno de interés, pueden complementarse para generar extrapolaciones más confiables sobre un sistema objetivo. Sin embargo, esto solo podrá hacerse si se conocen bien los mecanismos y el contexto en que ocurre una evidencia.

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2021-07-31

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Evidencia y Explicación en Economía: modelos, RCTs y su amalgama. (2021). Culturas Científicas, 2(1), 107-136. https://doi.org/10.35588/cc.v2i1.4907