Economics relies on formal styles of argument more than other social sciences. Formal modelling implies that conclusions follow rigorously by the laws of logic from the stated assumptions. It may involve advanced mathematical methods, but need not. Formal modelling is motivated by the belief that it encourages researchers to focus on essentials and makes exposition less prone to ambiguity. Modelling is also increasingly used in other social sciences, such as political science and philosophy.

Formal modelling has been adopted by all branches of economics. It is not the same as mathematical economics, which implies the application of advanced mathematical methods to study any given problem. Some reject mathematical economics: The Austrian School of economics believes that anything beyond simple logic is not only unnecessary but inappropriate for economic analysis.

Academic work sometimes requires years of training to be fully understandable. However, the basic ideas of economics can be taught with no more than simple arithmetic and graphs.