Theory hiding in the aggregates, part two

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'Aggregation implies abstraction — certain particularistic features of the elements of the aggregates are suppressed, while "representative" characteristic subsume exclusive significance. The aggregation procedure is, therefore, as important in determining the properties of an economic model as the assumptions made about relationships between the aggregates. Yet, economists eventually pay far more attention to specifying and defending the qualitative relationships among the aggregates of their models than to giving the reasons for the particular choice of aggregates. The aggregates used tend to become professional conventions which are seldom examined.' -- Leijonhuvud, On Keynesian economics and the economics of Keynes, p. 111


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