In order to predict the outcome of a policy measure, the social scientist must identify this chain of events. This chain of events can be deduced from patterns and regularities in economic behavior. The linkages are the sum total of the chains of cause and effect. The search for linkages is called theory. Goals which cannot be accomplished simultaneously.
Ends are the objectives or goals which society wants to achieve.
These goals may be political, social, psychological, or economic. Derivation of goals, however, extends beyond the boundaries of the social sciences into the field of ethics. The social scientist can study what people say they want, what they think they may want, and may even infer from their behavior what they really want, but it is not the job of social scientists to say whether people want the right things. Any discussion of what are the right things to want is more in the province of the philosophical, ideological, or theological vein. Republicans consistently believe that price stability is the more desired goal, while Democrats believe that reducing unemployment is the more desired goal.