What are Statements?
- In economics, a statement is relatively self-explanatory: it is a statement on an economic situation.
- There are two types of statements, positive and normative.
Positive Statements
- Positive statements are empirical observations on an economy that are falsifiable and can be shown to either be correct or incorrect.
- Positive statements primarily deal with logic, empirical data, and drawing conclusions from research.
- They are generally objective and use words such as "will" and "are".
Example
- The workers' wage is 50$ an hour" is a positive statement.
Normative Statements
- Normative statements are opinionated observations on an economy that make subjective statements.
- They focus on areas of economics that value and prioritize personal opinion and belief.
- Normative statements can be argued with, but they can't be proven correct or incorrect.
- Normative statements generally use the word "should".
Example
- "The workers wage should be increased by 10$ an hour" is a normative statement.