Is Economics Normative or Positive?

You can mostly distinguish normative and positive statements of economics from the type of questions it answers.

Normative economics is all about questions such as "What Should be?"
Positive economics deals with questions such as "What is?"

Let us understand them in more detail.

Positive Economics

It deals with the facts of economics. It explains the cause and effect relationship. statements of positive economics does not need to be true but they can be empirically approved or disapproved.

The following statements represents positive statements.

"Consumption of food with higher calories leads to obesity."

"More time spent studying leads to higher Score in exams"

Normative Economics

Normative Economics is all about opinion. It explains the view point of different economists based on their values. These statements are not verifiable empirically. Normative economics is mostly related with welfare economics. These statement can be written as

"Government should monitor food consumption patterns of people"

"Instead of Metro Buses government should invest in Education"

It is positive economics that makes economics a Science and Normative economics that makes it an art.