De econometrische methode en het sociologisch onderzoek

Samenvatting

An examination of the use of econometry in sociological research, viewed in the wider framework of the application of mathematics to sociological studies. The book Mathematical thinking in social studies, edited by P. Lazarsfeld is singled out as the best existing treatment of the more general problem. The historical growth of econometry is reviewed and traced to the work of J. M. Keynes, whose theoretical analysis based on mathematics pulled out the science of economics from the impasse in which it found itself in the 1930's. The econemetric method is described in accordance with the book Econometrie (Noorduijn's Wetenschappelijke Reeks, no date) by the Dutch econometrist Tinbergen. The method has 2 stages: (1) the explanation of a phenomenon by one or more factors, measured statistically, used mathematically and 'filled in' with economic data; and (2) the construction of a mathematical 'model,' which represents economic phenomena. The econometric method can be applied to sociology only on a limited scale, because sociology has fewer quantitative categories than economics. It can be applied only to measurable magnitudes; but these are more common in sociological research than most sociologists think. For purely qualitative phenomena, the existing sociological methods must be applied. I. Langnas.