Question

Do economists have any particular expertise at making normative arguments? In other words, they have expertise at making positive statements (i.e., what will happen) about some economic policy, for example, but do they have special expertise to judge whether or not the policy should be undertaken?

Short answer

Yes, economists certainly have expertise at making normative arguments as they have studied the theory behind the given economic policy.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Definitions

Positive statements describe the world as it is and normative statements describe how the world should be.

Step 2. Justification

An economist analyzes the gains and losses from the given economic policy on the basis of an economic theory or model related to the given policy and makes an normative statement or judge whether the policy should be undertaken or not but it is not necessary that their arguments will be optimal.