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Theory Competition and Selectivity: Are All Economic Facts Greatly Exaggerated?

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Author Info
Hristos Doucouliagos () (Deakin University)
T.D. Stanley () (Hendrix College)

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Abstract

There is growing concern and mounting evidence of selectivity in empirical economics. Most empirical economic literatures have a skewed (or truncated) distribution of results. The aim of this paper is to explore the links between publication selectivity and theory competition. In research areas where theory supports a wide range of outcomes, empirical evidence is less likely to be affected by selectivity. However, in those areas where theory is consistent with only one qualitative effect (e.g, a negative effect of price on quantity demanded), selectivity is more likely and its bias, more severe. This hypothesis is supported through the analysis of 65 distinct empirical economics literatures, involving approximately two thousand separate empirical studies, which in turn collectively contain many more thousands of estimates. Our meta-meta-analysis shows that publication selection is widespread, but not universal. It distorts scientific inference with potentially adverse effects on policy making, but competition and debate between rival theories reduces this selectivity and thereby improves economic inference. All literature reviews, whether traditional or quantitative (meta-analysis), need to adopt explicit selection correction methods.

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Paper provided by Deakin University, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance in its series Economics Series with number 2008_06.

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Length: 47 pages
Date of creation: 15 Oct 2008
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Handle: RePEc:dkn:econwp:eco_2008_06

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Related research
Keywords: publication selectivity; theory competition; meta-meta-analysis; empirical economics;

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  1. Hristos Doucouliagos & T.D. Stanley, 2008. "Publication Selection Bias in Minimum-Wage Research? A Meta-Regression Analysis," Economics Series 2008_14, Deakin University, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. [Downloadable!]
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