Positive and normative statements

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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.^[1]

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

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 For example, someone who opposes the law may proclaim "this law should be repealed", which is a normative statement.

• Falsifiability
• Positivism
• Is-ought problem

• 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