Abstract
Do economists qua scientists make value judgments? Taking descriptive accounts of the inflation rate as its main case study, this chapter argues that in practice it is hard to eschew value judgments in the construction and evaluation of accounts of economic phenomena. One reason is that the evaluation of the truth of an account as opposed to the evaluation of its goodness is not straightforward in practice. While it is often possible to determine whether a statement such as, “The inflation rate in our country is x% according to index such-and-such” is true, there is little point in doing so unless one also has a way to determine whether the measurement procedure is valid. But that cannot be done without a clear idea of the purpose for measuring the quantity, and many measurement purposes are inextricably linked with normative questions about the good life or the good society. In other words, the evaluations of the truth of certain descriptive and explanatory statements entail an endorsement of value judgments.
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