QUANTITAIVE METHODS APPLIED IN ECONOMIC RESEARCH (Metody ilosciowe w badaniach ekonomicznych)

The article presents the history of methodology of econometric sciences and their role in the econometric research. Three methodological approaches to econometric models have been described. The first - logical positivism, where they are used to affirm the theory they represent, to interprete the relation force between economic variables. The second appraoach (instrumentalism) favours observation as a source of information concerning forecasts and simulations that constitute a criterion for the informative value of the knowledge which was used for building a model. On the basis of a data analysis models should be prepared which will be used not for the interpretation of parameters (they usually do not undergo it) but for indicating the forecast. The third approach is referred to as critical rationalism in which an econometric model is to be used for negative verification of the formulated hypothesis.