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. "The Big Bang was an immoral act" may seem illogical to people who do not ascribe morality to scientific events, but this statement remains a normative statement because it is a normative judgement.

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 For example, someone who opposes the law may proclaim "this law should be repealed", which is a normative statement.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