23 found
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Aki Lehtinen [22]Aki Petteri Lehtinen [1]
  1. Economic Modelling as Robustness Analysis.Jaakko Kuorikoski, Aki Lehtinen & Caterina Marchionni - 2010 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61 (3):541-567.
    We claim that the process of theoretical model refinement in economics is best characterised as robustness analysis: the systematic examination of the robustness of modelling results with respect to particular modelling assumptions. We argue that this practise has epistemic value by extending William Wimsatt's account of robustness analysis as triangulation via independent means of determination. For economists robustness analysis is a crucial methodological strategy because their models are often based on idealisations and abstractions, and it is usually difficult to tell (...)
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  2.  78
    Incredible Worlds, Credible Results.Jaakko Kuorikoski & Aki Lehtinen - 2009 - Erkenntnis 70 (1):119-131.
    Robert Sugden argues that robustness analysis cannot play an epistemic role in grounding model-world relationships because the procedure is only a matter of comparing models with each other. We posit that this argument is based on a view of models as being surrogate systems in too literal a sense. In contrast, the epistemic importance of robustness analysis is easy to explicate if modelling is viewed as extended cognition, as inference from assumptions to conclusions. Robustness analysis is about assessing the reliability (...)
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  3.  38
    Derivational Robustness and Indirect Confirmation.Aki Lehtinen - 2018 - Erkenntnis 83 (3):539-576.
    Derivational robustness may increase the degree to which various pieces of evidence indirectly confirm a robust result. There are two ways in which this increase may come about. First, if one can show that a result is robust, and that the various individual models used to derive it also have other confirmed results, these other results may indirectly confirm the robust result. Confirmation derives from the fact that data not known to bear on a result are shown to be relevant (...)
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  4.  88
    Robustness analysis disclaimer: please read the manual before use!Jaakko Kuorikoski, Aki Lehtinen & Caterina Marchionni - 2012 - Biology and Philosophy 27 (6):891-902.
    Odenbaugh and Alexandrova provide a challenging critique of the epistemic benefits of robustness analysis, singling out for particular criticism the account we articulated in Kuorikoski et al.. Odenbaugh and Alexandrova offer two arguments against the confirmatory value of robustness analysis: robust theorems cannot specify causal mechanisms and models are rarely independent in the way required by robustness analysis. We address Odenbaugh and Alexandrova’s criticisms in order to clarify some of our original arguments and to shed further light on the properties (...)
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  5.  31
    The epistemic benefits of generalisation in modelling I: Systems and applicability.Aki Lehtinen - 2021 - Synthese 199 (3-4):10343-10370.
    This paper provides a conceptual framework that allows for distinguishing between different kinds of generalisation and applicability. It is argued that generalising models may bring epistemic benefits. They do so if they show that restrictive and unrealistic assumptions do not threaten the credibility of results derived from models. There are two different notions of applicability, generic and specific, which give rise to three different kinds of generalizations. Only generalising a result brings epistemic benefits concerning the truth of model components or (...)
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  6. Unrealistic assumptions in rational choice theory.Aki Lehtinen & Jaakko Kuorikoski - 2007 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 37 (2):115-138.
    The most common argument against the use of rational choice models outside economics is that they make unrealistic assumptions about individual behavior. We argue that whether the falsity of assumptions matters in a given model depends on which factors are explanatorily relevant. Since the explanatory factors may vary from application to application, effective criticism of economic model building should be based on model-specific arguments showing how the result really depends on the false assumptions. However, some modeling results in imperialistic applications (...)
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  7.  63
    Allocating confirmation with derivational robustness.Aki Lehtinen - 2016 - Philosophical Studies 173 (9):2487-2509.
    Robustness may increase the degree to which the robust result is indirectly confirmed if it is shown to depend on confirmed rather than disconfirmed assumptions. Although increasing the weight with which existing evidence indirectly confirms it in such a case, robustness may also be irrelevant for confirmation, or may even disconfirm. Whether or not it confirms depends on the available data and on what other results have already been established.
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  8. Computing the perfect model: Why do economists Shun simulation?Aki Lehtinen & Jaakko Kuorikoski - 2007 - Philosophy of Science 74 (3):304-329.
    Like other mathematically intensive sciences, economics is becoming increasingly computerized. Despite the extent of the computation, however, there is very little true simulation. Simple computation is a form of theory articulation, whereas true simulation is analogous to an experimental procedure. Successful computation is faithful to an underlying mathematical model, whereas successful simulation directly mimics a process or a system. The computer is seen as a legitimate tool in economics only when traditional analytical solutions cannot be derived, i.e., only as a (...)
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  9.  42
    Model selection in macroeconomics: DSGE and ad hocness.Jaakko Kuorikoski & Aki Lehtinen - 2018 - Journal of Economic Methodology 25 (3):252-264.
    ABSTRACTWe investigate the applicability of Rodrik’s accounts of model selection and horizontal progress to macroeconomic DSGE modelling in both academic and policy-oriented modelling contexts. We argue that the key step of identifying critical assumptions is complicated by the interconnectedness of the common structural core of DSGE models and by the ad hoc modifications introduced to model various rigidities and other market imperfections. We then outline alternative ways in which macroeconomic modelling could become more horizontally progressive.
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  10. The Welfare Consequences of Strategic Voting in Two Commonly Used Parliamentary Agendas.Aki Lehtinen - 2007 - Theory and Decision 63 (1):1-40.
    This paper studies the welfare consequences of strategic voting in two commonly used parliamentary agendas by comparing the average utilities obtained in simulated voting under two behavioural assumptions: expected utility maximising behaviour and sincere behaviour. The average utility obtained in simulations is higher with expected utility maximising behaviour than with sincere voting behaviour under a broad range of assumptions. Strategic voting increases welfare particularly if the distribution of preference intensities correlates with voter types.
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  11.  97
    Economics Imperialism and Solution Concepts in Political Science.Jaakko Kuorikoski & Aki Lehtinen - 2010 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 40 (3):347-374.
    Political science and economic science . . . make use of the same language, the same mode of abstraction, the same instruments of thought and the same method of reasoning. (Black 1998, 354) Proponents as well as opponents of economics imperialism agree that imperialism is a matter of unification; providing a unified framework for social scientific analysis. Uskali Mäki distinguishes between derivational and ontological unification and argues that the latter should serve as a constraint for the former. We explore whether, (...)
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  12. Economics as robustness analysis.Jaakko Kuorikoski, Aki Lehtinen & Caterina Marchionni - unknown
    All economic models involve abstractions and idealisations. Economic theory itself does not tell which idealizations are truly fatal or harmful for the result and which are not. This is why much of what is seen as theoretical contribution in economics is constituted by deriving familiar results from different modelling assumptions. If a modelling result is robust with respect to particular modelling assumptions, the empirical falsity of these particular assumptions does not provide grounds for criticizing the result. In this paper we (...)
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  13.  47
    Economics for real: Uskali Mäki and the place of truth in economics.Aki Lehtinen, Jaakko Kuorikoski & Petri Ylikoski (eds.) - 2012 - New York: Routledge.
    This book provides the first comprehensive and critical examination of Mäki's realist philosophy of economics.
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  14.  89
    On the Impossibility of Amalgamating Evidence.Aki Lehtinen - 2013 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 44 (1):101-110.
    It is argued in this paper that amalgamating confirmation from various sources is relevantly different from social-choice contexts, and that proving an impossibility theorem for aggregating confirmation measures directs attention to irrelevant issues.
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  15.  22
    A welfarist critique of social choice theory: interpersonal comparisons in the theory of voting.Aki Lehtinen - 2015 - Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 8 (2):34.
    This paper provides a philosophical critique of social choice theory insofar as it deals with the normative evaluation of voting and voting rules. I will argue that the very method of evaluating voting rules in terms of whether they satisfy various conditions is deeply problematic because introducing strategic behaviour leads to a violation of any condition that makes a difference between voting rules. I also argue that it is legitimate to make interpersonal comparisons of utilities in voting theory. Combining a (...)
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  16.  11
    Riippumattomuusehto sosiaalisen valinnan teoriassa – melkein viimeistä kertaa.Aki Lehtinen - 2017 - Ajatus 74 (1):241-280.
    Kirjasymposio Eerik Lagerspetzin Social Choice and Democratic Values – kirjasta. Kenneth Arrowia seuraten Lagerspetz pitää sosiaalisen valinnan teorian suurimpana vahvuutena sitä, että sen tuloksia voidaan käyttää monissa erilaisissa yhteyksissä. Minä taas pidän teorian suurimpana heikkoutena sen vaikeutta: tutkijat eivät ole päässeet yhteisymmärrykseen erityisesti ns. epärelevanttien vaihtoehtojen riippumattomuusehdon tulkinnasta ja muotoilusta. Lagerspetz hyväksyy kirjassaan nähdäkseni seuraavat väitteet: kaikki demokraattiset äänestyssäännöt rikkovat riippumattomuusehtoa, mutta että tuo ehto on silti normatiivisesti perusteltu. Arrow’n ehdot ovat intuitiivisesti ottaen hyväksyttävissä. Koska riippumattomuusehdon rikkoutumisesta seuraa strategista äänestämistä (...)
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  17.  23
    Simulated Data in Empirical Science.Aki Lehtinen & Jani Raerinne - forthcoming - Foundations of Science:1-22.
    This paper provides the first systematic epistemological account of simulated data in empirical science. We focus on the epistemic issues modelers face when they generate simulated data to solve problems with empirical datasets, research tools, or experiments. We argue that for simulated data to count as epistemically reliable, a simulation model does not have to mimic its target. Instead, some models take empirical data as a target, and simulated data may successfully mimic such a target even if the model does (...)
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  18.  16
    Representaatio: tiedon kivijalasta tieteiden työkaluksi.Tarja Knuuttila & Aki Petteri Lehtinen (eds.) - 2010 - Helsinki: Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press.
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  19.  69
    A farewell to IIA.Aki Lehtinen - unknown
    Arrow's Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA) has been under criticism for decades for not taking account of preference intensities. Computer-simulation results by Aki Lehtinen concerning strategic voting under various voting rules show that this intensity argument does not need to rest on mere intuition. Voters may express intensities by voting strategically, and that this has beneficial aggregate-level consequences: utilitarian efficiency is higher if voters engage in strategic behaviour than if they always vote sincerely. Strategic voting is thus unambiguously beneficial under (...)
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  20.  16
    A review on Katzner’s Models, mathematics and methodology in economic explanation, Cambridge University Press 2018.Aki Lehtinen - 2021 - Journal of Economic Methodology 29 (1):105-109.
    A review of Donald Katzner's book on economic modelling is provided. In addition to characterising the book, I give critical comments on the distinction between primary and secondary assumptions.
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  21. Imagination and fiction in modelling; an epistemic critique.Aki Lehtinen - 2024 - Synthese 204 (5):1-27.
    This paper criticises the Waltonian fictional view for misconstruing the role of imagination in scientific modelling, and for failing to provide an adequate account of the epistemology of modelling. It is argued that the central notions of prescribed imagination, props and principles of generation should be abandoned because they confuse more than clarify the philosophy of modelling. It is argued that the epistemic credibility of inferences in modelling require that results are explicitly derived with model descriptions in a proof, but (...)
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  22.  30
    Introduction to the special issue: papers from the IX INEM Conference in Helsinki.Aki Lehtinen, Uskali Mäki & Caterina Marchionni - 2014 - Journal of Economic Methodology 21 (1):1-2.
    Following an established tradition, the current special issue collects five articles that originate from papers presented at the IX Conference of the International Network for Economic Method. The conference took place in Helsinki on 1–3 September 2011 and was hosted by TINT (Trends and Tensions in Intellectual Integration), University of Helsinki. The conference was successful both in terms of the number of participants and the quality of the presentations. Although the sample of papers that made it to this special issue (...)
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  23.  22
    The epistemic benefits of generalisation in modelling II: expressive power and abstraction.Aki Lehtinen - 2022 - Synthese 200 (2):1-24.
    This paper contributes to the philosophical accounts of generalisation in formal modelling by introducing a conceptual framework that allows for recognising generalisations that are epistemically beneficial in the sense of contributing to the truth of a model result or component. The framework is useful for modellers themselves because it is shown how to recognise different kinds of generalisation on the basis of changes in model descriptions. Since epistemically beneficial generalisations usually de-idealise the model, the paper proposes a reformulation of the (...)
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