Regional Economic Analysis: The Case for Methodological Individualism

Abstract

Besides subjectivism (in terms of value and cost) and the market process approach (as opposed to mainstream economics’ equilibrium analysis), methodological individualism is a foundational methodological principle of Austrian economics. While being (arguably) more consistently and consciously practiced within Austrian economics, methodological individualism is far from unique to this tradition and is a well-recognized principle of inquiry in the social sciences (Watkins, 1952a, 1952b). Needless to say though, methodological individualism remains controversial and discussions of its true meaning and adequateness periodically resurface in the philosophy of science literature (Hodgson, 2007; Udehn, 2002).

Citation

Leppälä, S. and Desrochers, P. (2012), "Regional Economic Analysis: The Case for Methodological Individualism", Emanuel Andersson, D. (Ed.) The Spatial Market Process (Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-2134(2012)0000016005