Abstract
Counterfactuals are what ifs, thought experiments, Gedankenexperimenten, alternatives to actual history; they imagine what would have happened to an economy if, contrary to fact, some present condition were changed; in the philosophical literature therefore they are known also as ‘contrary-to-fact conditionals’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Elster, J. 1978. Logic and society: Contradictions and possible worlds. New York: Wiley.
Fogel, R.W. 1964. Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in econometric history. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Fogel, R.W. 1979. Notes on the social saving controversy. Journal of Economic History 39(1): 1–54.
Goodman, N. 1965. Fact, fiction and forecast, 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merril.
Lewis, D.K. 1973. Counterfactuals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lucas, R.E. 1976. Econometric policy evaluation: A critique. Journal of Monetary Economics, Supplementary Series 1: 19–46.
McClelland, P.D. 1975. Causal explanation and model building in history, economics, and the new economic history. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Mill, J.S. 1872. A system of logic, 8th ed. London: Longmans; reprinted, 1956.
Redlich, F. 1968. Potentialities and pitfalls in economic history. Explorations in Entrepreneurial History II, 6(1), 93–108. Reprinted in The new economic history: Recent papers on methodology, ed. R.L. Andreano. New York: Wiley, 1970.
Selten, R., and U. Leopold. 1982. Subjective conditionals in decision and game theory. In Studies in contemporary economics. Berlin: Springer.
Williamson, J.G. 1974. Late Nineteenth-Century American Development: A general equilibrium history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
McCloskey, D.N. (2018). Counterfactuals. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_631
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_631
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences