OS DOIS M TODOS DA TEORIA ECON MICA

OS DOIS MÉTODOS DA TEORIA ECONÔMICA
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
Paper apresentado ao Encontro Nacional de
Economia Política, Florianópolis, 19-20 de junho de 2003.

Abstract. Economic theory deals with a complex reality, which may be seen through various perspectives, using different methods. Economics’ three major branches – development economics, macroeconomics, and microeconomics – cannot be unified because the former two use preferentially a historical-deductive, while the later, an essentially hypothetical-deductive or aprioristic method. Smith,
Marx and Keynes used an essentially the method of the new historical facts, while
Walras, an aprioristic one to devise the neoclassical general equilibrium model. The historical-deductive method looks for the new historical facts that condition the economic reality. Economic theory remains central, but it is more modest, or less general, as the economist that adopt principally this method is content to analyze stabilization and growth in the framework of a given historical phase or moment of the economic process. As a trade off, his models are more realistic and conducive to more effective economic policies, as long as he is not required to previously abandon, one by one, the unrealistic assumptions required by a excessively general theory, but already starts from more realistic ones.

A teoria clássica do desenvolvimento econômico, fundada por Smith e Ricardo, teve
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em Marx e em Schumpeter seus dois grandes continuadores. A teoria neoclássica representou uma contribuição fundamental para a teoria econômica quando Jevons,
Menger, e Walras desenvolveram a abordagem marginalista, quando o último concebeu o modelo de equilíbrio geral, e quando Marshall deu certa praticidade à
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teoria microeconômica. Finalmente, a teoria macroeconômica fundada por Keynes
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Smith, 1776; Ricardo, 1817/21; Marx, 1867, 1894; Schumpeter, 1911. Schumpeter é aqui citado enquanto economista histórico, evolucionário, não como o economista