The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics
Just over a quarter century ago, Edward Leamer (1983) reflected on the state of empirical work in economics. He urged empirical researchers to “take the con out of econometrics” and memorably observed (p. 37): “Hardly anyone takes data analysis seriously. Or perhaps more accurately, hardly anyone ta...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Economic Association
2010
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54195 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-8956 |
| _version_ | 1811095192863768576 |
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| author | Angrist, Joshua Pischke, Jorn-Steffen |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Angrist, Joshua Pischke, Jorn-Steffen |
| author_sort | Angrist, Joshua |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Just over a quarter century ago, Edward Leamer (1983) reflected on the state of empirical work in economics. He urged empirical researchers to “take the con out of econometrics” and memorably observed (p. 37): “Hardly anyone takes data analysis seriously. Or perhaps more accurately, hardly anyone takes anyone else’s data analysis seriously.” Leamer was not alone; Hendry (1980), Sims (1980), and others writing at about the same time were similarly disparaging of empirical practice. Reading these commentaries, we wondered as late-1980s Ph.D. students about the prospects for a satisfying career doing applied work. Perhaps credible empirical work in economics is a pipe dream. Here we address the questions of whether the quality and the credibility of empirical work have increased since Leamer’s pessimistic assessment. Our views are necessarily colored by the areas of applied microeconomics in which we are active, but we look over the fence at other areas as well. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:12:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/54195 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:12:11Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | American Economic Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/541952022-10-02T07:03:00Z The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics Angrist, Joshua Pischke, Jorn-Steffen Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Angrist, Joshua Pischke, Jorn-Steffen Angrist, Joshua Just over a quarter century ago, Edward Leamer (1983) reflected on the state of empirical work in economics. He urged empirical researchers to “take the con out of econometrics” and memorably observed (p. 37): “Hardly anyone takes data analysis seriously. Or perhaps more accurately, hardly anyone takes anyone else’s data analysis seriously.” Leamer was not alone; Hendry (1980), Sims (1980), and others writing at about the same time were similarly disparaging of empirical practice. Reading these commentaries, we wondered as late-1980s Ph.D. students about the prospects for a satisfying career doing applied work. Perhaps credible empirical work in economics is a pipe dream. Here we address the questions of whether the quality and the credibility of empirical work have increased since Leamer’s pessimistic assessment. Our views are necessarily colored by the areas of applied microeconomics in which we are active, but we look over the fence at other areas as well. 2010-04-26T15:42:00Z 2010-04-26T15:42:00Z 2010 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/SubmittedJournalArticle 0895-3309 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54195 Angrist, Joshua D. and Jorn-Steffen Pischke. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics." Journal of Economic Perspectives 24(2), Spring 2010, p.3-30. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-8956 en_US http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.24.2.3 Journal of Economic Perspectives Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf American Economic Association author/dept web page |
| spellingShingle | Angrist, Joshua Pischke, Jorn-Steffen The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics |
| title | The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics |
| title_full | The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics |
| title_fullStr | The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics |
| title_short | The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics |
| title_sort | credibility revolution in empirical economics how better research design is taking the con out of econometrics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54195 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-8956 |
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