Call for abstracts:

The Plurality of Evidence and Causality in Economics (PECE-2024)

The Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, 12-13 September 2023 Grodzka 52, Kraków, Poland,

The conference The Plurality of Evidence and Causality in Economics, organized jointly by the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, and the Polish Philosophy of Economics Network, aims to create a forum for an exchange of philosophical arguments concerned with assessing the quality of evidence, establishing causal claims in economics, and their use for economic policy-making. Invited keynote lectures will be given by:
•    María Jiménez-Buedo,
•    Federica Russo,
•    Jon Williamson.

Economics is one of the disciplines with significant policy implications. This raises the need to establish causal claims and assess the effects of economic policy-making, and motivates the philosophical analysis of these practices. In effect, the questions of how to support causal conclusions, what is the meaning of causal claims, and how to assess the quality of causal evidence in economics have been thoroughly debated in philosophy of economics. However, the debates are far from being conclusive.

In particular, we invite contributions concerned with the following questions:

-    What are causal relations in the economy?
-    What is the concept of causality adequate to economics?
-    What is the causal epistemology most suitable for the economic sciences?
-    How to apply Evidential Pluralism to research in economics and policy-making?
-    How to assess the quality of mechanistic evidence in economics?
   o    What are the specific features of economic mechanisms?
   o    What is the role of economic theory in delivering mechanistic evidence?
   o    What is the role of associational studies in providing evidence for mechanisms?
   o    Are data-generating processes of econometric models mechanistic hypotheses?
   o    How to test mechanistic hypotheses in economics?
-    How to assess the quality of difference-making evidence in economics?
   o    Does the evidence-based policy hierarchy apply to economics?
   o    What is the role of observational studies in delivering difference-making evidence?
   o    How to assess the quality of design-based econometric research?
   o    How to deal with the replication crisis in econometrics?
-    What evidentiary standards should be applied to macroeconomics and other disciplines where conducting interventional studies is infeasible?
-    What are the philosophical problems of economic policy implementation?

Abstracts no longer than 500 words (including references) should be submitted in an attachment, not including author details by email with the subject ‘PECE2024 submission’ sent to: mariusz.maziarz@uj.edu.pl.

Deadline for submission: May 15th, 2024
Decisions will be announced by June 1st, 2024.