Neither Aggregates Nor Averages Act Upon One Another and It Is Impossible to Establish Connections of Cause and Effect Between Them

In an interesting, though apparently neglected, aside, Professor Hayek has remarked that ". . . neither aggregates nor averages do act upon one another, and it will never be possible to establish necessary connections of cause and effect between them as we can between individual phenomena, individual prices, etc. I would even go so far as to assert that, from the very nature of economic theory, averages can never form a link in its reasoning . . . ."

Now, any serious doubt concerning the validity of aggregates and averages is a dagger aimed straight at the heart of much current empirical research and statistical analysis in economics.

--Louis M. Spadaro, "Averages and Aggregates in Economics," in On Freedom and Free Enterprise: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises, ed. Mary Sennholz (1956; repr., Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2008), 140.