Economic methodology is the study of methods, especially a scientific method, in explanation to economics, including principles underlying economic reasoning. In advanced English, 'methodology' may source theoretical or systematic aspects of a method or several methods. Philosophy together with economics also takes up methodology at the intersection of the two subjects.
General methodological issues increase similarities and contrasts to the natural sciences and to other social sciences and, in particular, to:
Economic methodology has gone from periodic reflections of economists on method to a distinct research field in economics since the 1970s. In one direction, it has expanded to the boundaries of philosophy, including the description of economics to the philosophy of science and the theory of knowledge In another rule of philosophy and economics, additional subjects are treated including decision theory and ethics.