Title: Science is measurement: muons, money and the Nobel Prize

Authors: Jeffrey David Turk

Addresses: Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Chemin des Deux Maisons 67/28, 1200 Brussels, Belgium

Abstract: This article investigates the difference in measurement methods between contemporary particle physics and economics. The book Measurement in Economics: A Handbook, (Boumans, 2007), is used to present the current state of measurement technique in economics. These views are compared with the measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Particle physics is realist in measurement while economics is not. The reality check on theory that measurement provides in particle physics is conspicuously absent in economics. However, the nature of the social world precludes the use of the same measurement approach.

Keywords: realism; measurement methods; systematic uncertainty; particle physics; economic methodology; muons; anomalous magnetic moment; Marcel Boumans; Nobel Prize; science; money; pluralism; economics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2011.044272

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2011 Vol.2 No.3, pp.291 - 305

Published online: 29 Jan 2015 *

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