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AP®︎/College Macroeconomics
Course: AP®︎/College Macroeconomics > Unit 1
Lesson 1: ScarcityNormative and positive statements
What is the difference between normative and positive statements in the context of economics or philosophy? Normative statements are based on opinions or ethics—what someone believes should be. Positive statements, on the other hand, are testable, even if they may not necessarily be true.
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- Is there another type of statement that would fit in between "normative" and "positive"? In other words, a type of statement that shows bias, but can still be tested?(22 votes)
- I think these groups give much justice to the context of the statement, if I were to say ''Taxes are bad for the economy'', it may seem like a normative statement but it can be tested as in comparing growth of non-taxed to taxed countries. Or a comparison of the past economy to the growing economy after taxes were installed (don't aggregate too much on this).
Hope I could clarify, if you give an example I would be better help(25 votes)
- Could Positive Statements be differentiated by Normative ones by trying to find a cause and consequence for the statement? For example: "Raising taxes for the poor is wrong" is a highly Normative, but "Raising taxes for the poor is wrong because it disrupts social development" can be proven wrong by tracing experiments where the actions does not lead to the stated consequence—making it a Positive.(5 votes)
- The statement "raising taxes is wrong " is still normative because it is still an opinion. The second part might be positive depending on what is meant by "disrupting social development". For example, if there is some measure of that, and you can show a cause and effect relationship, then you have a clearer argument that something is positive.(17 votes)
- I would say that the statement; government should increase taxes on the rich to help the poor, is a positive statement because we can observe and learn from other economic systems
(socialism) how that worked for them.(4 votes)- You said "should". This is a normative statement. Stating a hypthosesis about the outcome of such a policy would be a positive statement.(11 votes)
- Does that mean that normative statements can be expressed as positive statements and vice-versa? Wouldn't that mean it all just depends on how the opinion is put into words?(5 votes)
- Normative statements are based on values of judgement, but positive statements are based on fact.
For example:
"U.S GDP shrank 9.2% in the second quarter of 2020"
and
"It is a terrible thing that the U.S GDP shrank 9.2% in the second quarter of 2020"
I guess you are right that normative statements can be expressed as positive statements, so as that the opinion is put into words that allow it to be testable. Positive statements can be tested. They are not always right, they can be wrong.
Normative statements cannot be tested because we cannot prove that the statement is correct or incorrect.(5 votes)
- An increase in the federal minimum wage will provide a living wage for the working poor. Is this a normative or positive statement?(3 votes)
- It's positive, even though we don't know if it's true or not.
A normative version would be "we should increase the minimum wage in order to provide a living wage for the working poor"(6 votes)
- Could a statement exhibit both an opinion and something that could be tested? For example, raising taxes is bad because it will slow the economy. Or, raising taxes is good because it will provide money to pay for programs that will pay for infrastructure improvements?(3 votes)
- If you consider this statement carefully
"raising taxes is bad because it will slow the economy."
it is ultimately an opinion, right? It contains a clause that relates a factual claim, but it's an opinion about that claim.(4 votes)
- how does the positive of statements help contribute toward life(4 votes)
- In the video, Sal says about running simulations (as an example) for testing some of the positive statements. Can you tell me more about it, like what type of simulations and how can they be used to model complex economic systems?
Thank you :)(4 votes) - So normative statements are subjective statements and positive statements are objective statements? If that really is the case, than why bother giving them different names and not sticking with the ones that are already being used and less "fancy"?(2 votes)
- It goes beyond that. For example, normative statements aren't just descriptive, they can be prescriptive as well.(5 votes)
- so basically, a normative is like an opinion, and positive means that it can be test?(3 votes)
- Yes, a Normative is something someone thinks of that is an opinion, while a positive is something that not be true but can be tested.(3 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] What we're
going to do in this video is discuss the difference
between normative statements and positive statements, and
you'll see these words used usually in an economic context, sometimes a philosophical one. A normative statement is
one that really is a matter of opinion, maybe a matter of ethics, something that someone thinks
is how the world should be. While a positive statement
is something that, it doesn't necessarily have to be true but it's something that can be tested. So what we're going to do in this video is look at a bunch of
statements around economics and think about whether
they would be classified as normative statements,
things that are opinions, that are a matter of ethics or morals, or whether they are positive statements, things that can be tested. So let's look at our first statement. This says, "Paying people
who aren't working, "even though they could
work, is wrong and unfair." So regardless of whether or not you agree with this statement, is
it a normative statement or a positive statement? Well the fact that
someone's saying it's wrong and it's unfair, this is pretty
clearly a matter of opinion so this would be a normative statement. You can't test whether
this is wrong or unfair, you would just have to believe
that it is wrong and unfair. Now let's look at another statement. Programs like welfare reduce the incentive for people to work. Is this a normative statement
or a positive statement? Well it might feel a little normative, it might feel like this is an opinion, but it actually can be tested. You could institute some welfare
program on some small scale and compare it to a comparable place where there isn't a welfare
program and see what it does for incentives to work, you survey people, you see how many people work
in one situation or another. It might be a false statement,
it might be a true statement, but either way, it actually can be tested, so this would be a positive statement so I'll put it in this
category right over here, this is a positive, positive statement. Alright, let's look at another one. This say, "Raising taxes
on the wealthy to pay "for government programs
grows the economy." Is that a normative statement
or a positive statement? Well once again, this can be tested. It might be true, it might
be false, maybe your test is even inconclusive,
but it can be tested, you could try to run a
simulation, you could look at case studies of
countries that did do this and see what happens to their economy versus ones that didn't do it. And so this is, even though
it looks like something that someone who favors
raising taxes on the wealthy maybe out of fairness arguments,
something that they would say, this statement
itself is not normative, the statement can be tested, so this is a positive statement. A good giveaway for normative statement, if it said something like
it is fair to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay
for government programs, that would have been a normative statement or we should do this, that
would have been a normative statement but here, this is
something that's testable. Now the next statement,
"Raising taxes on the wealthy "slows economic growth." Is that a normative statement
or a positive statement? Well, once again, this
might feel like someone who is against raising
taxes, who think it's unfair to raise taxes on the wealthy,
something that they would say but the statement itself
can actually be tested. So this is also a positive statement, even though in some ways
it's the opposite statement as the one that we just did. Because once again, we could
look at countries that did this and countries that didn't do this, we could run a computer
simulation to try to understand whether this statement is true. Let's do one last statement. This says, "The government
should raise taxes "on the wealthy to pay
for helping the poor." Is this normative or positive? Well in this situation, the word should is a pretty big giveaway, should, or it's fair or unfair,
this is someone's opinion, it's not something that's testable, you can't test whether this
statement is right or wrong, it's based on, do you
believe ethically, morally, that this is true? And so this is a normative statement, so I'll put it in the normative column. So big picture, these words
normative and positive, these are fancy words but
all they mean is normative is a matter of morals or opinion
and can't really be tested while a positive statement,
whether they're right or wrong or whether you agree
or disagree with them, these are things that in
theory could be tested.