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The Stages of Model Building in Economics

Abstract Five successive stages are identified that characterize the process of explanatory model building in economics. Moving across the first three from an initial image, to the model’s preliminary formalization, and then to its operationalization, requires the successive introduction of assumptions that remove the model farther and farther from the reality on the basis of which the initial image was created. It is argued that by ignoring the first two stages, important implications of the Stage 3 assumptions may be hidden. The revelation of these implications may lead to the reconsideration or rejection of the model.