11. La science économique et ses ennemis

Economics has become just as much an experimental science as medicine and biology. Like the latter, it seeks to establish causal relationships. In order to do so, economists rely on ?experiments,? which consist in comparing the situation of test groups having undergone a change of their economic environment with control groups not having undergone this change. When several experiments in different contexts lead to convergent results, one can consider that a ?consensus? has been reached. This consensus can be undermined in the future if other experiments contradict the current results, but it cannot be disputed on the basis of political or partisan cleavages. It is the responsibility of researchers in the social sciences to promote this approach and to publicize its results.