While exploring the book written by Greenlaw and Taylor (2014) Principles of macroeconomics, I found remarkable information provided in Chapter 2 in the section “Confronting objections to the economic approach.” This part of this section puts emphasis on human behavior and explores the notion of self-interest from various perspectives.
The authors highlight that the economic approach appears to be a valuable tool for understanding human behaviors. Given that the economic approach depicts people as self-interested, this quality may be considered unethical and immoral but, at the same time, justified and beneficial. Greenlaw and Taylor claim that economists distinguish between so-called positive and normative statements. Positive statements are used to “describe the world as it is”, while normative statements define “how the world should be” (Greenlaw & Taylor, 2014). Although economics evaluates the policies, events, gains, and losses accompanying them with normative considerations and conclusions, “the analysis of economics is rooted in a positive analysis of how people, firms, and governments actually behave” (Greenlaw & Taylor, 2014). It implies that pursuing accordance with normative statements barely provides economics with profits and relevant decisions. Instead, economics should be based on a positive approach and actual depiction of the world.
This topic reveals a broad range of knowledge that undoubtedly will impact my future decisions within my professional practice. Understanding that economics is “not a form of moral instruction” empowers to objectively analyze human behavior and demands and make justified and straightforward economic decisions (Greenlaw & Taylor, 2014). I learned that decision-making based on considerations of normative statements while ignoring actually existent circumstances could result in wrong economic solutions that do not match reality. In terms of economics, it is essential to draw conclusions describing and analyzing existent economic behavior even if it appears unethical. Human behavior is a multidimensional notion based on people’s values, beliefs, rights, and freedoms, and all of these features shape consumer demands. Therefore, to achieve the best possible outcomes, it is crucial to evaluate economics with a positive approach, analyzing governments’, firms’, and people’s actual behavior.
Reference
Greenlaw, S. A., & Taylor T. (2014). Principles of macroeconomics [eBook edition]. OpenStax.