MEASURING INSTRUMENTS IN ECONOMICS

Macel J. Boumans

Abstract

The measurement set-ups for measuring economic phenomena are economic systems that cannot be controlled or shielded. Economists have to infer the desired quantitative facts about the phenomenon under study from the data generated by these systems. Accurate measurement results are therefore not obtained by adjustments and improvements of the measurement system, but must result from building accurate models of these systems. By taking into account the background noise when modelling the phenomenon, the impossibility of control for bias and error is compensated. As a result, accuracy is obtained by first finding accurate representations of the relevant economic system incorporating both phenomenon and its environment. Secondly, these representations are applied in the methods for achieving precision of the measurement results. Because the unobserved facts about the relevant economic phenomena are inferred from data generated by the underlying system, measurement in economics is always associative in which the inferences are based on the models that function as representations of this association.

Keywords

model, passive observation, ceteris neglectis

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IMEKO-TC7-2004-129.pdf

DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC7 - Measurement Science

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