Positive and normative statements

In economics and philosophy, a positive statement (or descriptive statement) concerns what "is"; this is contrasted with normative statements (or prescriptive statements), which express a normative judgment about a proposition. Positive statements are the opposite of normative statements: whereas the former is meant to describe the world as it is, the latter is meant to talk about the world as it should be..

Positive and normative statements are often applied in economics to distinguish between the explanation of economic phenomena and normative evaluation of economic policy.

This distinction is regardless of whether the statement is empirically true or not; for example, "the Big Bang occurred in 2007" is empirically false, but remains a positive statement simply because it is a statement about what is.

Example

The statement "This bill recently became law" is a positive statement. It states that a certain piece of legislation had recently become law. A normative statement can be spawned from this by asserting a judgment about this law. For example, someone who opposes the law may proclaim "it is objectionable that this bill became law", which is a normative statement. Likewise, "It is rightful that this bill became law" is also a normative statement.

See also

• Falsifiability
• Positivism
• Is-ought problem

References

• Lipsey, Richard G. (1975). An introduction to positive economics (fourth ed.). Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 4–6. ISBN 0-297-76899-9.
• Positive vs. Normative Economics, Economae: An Encyclopedia