The scientific or positive aspects of economics were emphasized by many 20th century economists in order to show that economic theories could answer questions with the same scientific methodology as the physical sciences. For example, “Government spending should be increased” is a normative statement. This contrasts with normative economic statements, in which an opinion is given. For example, a positive economic theory might describe how money supply growth affects inflation, but it does not provide any instruction on what policy ought to be followed. Positive economics as such avoids economic value judgments. Examples of positive economic statements are "the unemployment rate in France is higher than that in the United States," or “an increase in government spending would lower the unemployment rate.” Either of these is potentially falsifiable and may be contradicted by evidence. Positive economics as a science concerns analysis of economic behavior to determine what is true. It deals with empirical facts as well as cause-and-effect behavioral relationships and emphasizes that economic theories must be consistent with existing observations and produce testable, precise predictions about the phenomena under question. That is, it focuses on the description, quantification and explanation of economic phenomena.
Positive economics (as opposed to normative economics) is the part of economics that deals with positive statements.
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