Economists are quick to assume opportunistic behavior in almost every walk of life other than our own. Our empirical methods are based on assumptions of human behavior that would not pass muster in any of our models. The solution to this problem is not to expect a mass renunciation of data mining, selective data cleaning or opportunistic methodology selection, but rather to follow Leamer's lead in designing and using techniques that anticipate the behavior of optimizing researchers. In this essay, I make ten points about a more economic approach to empirical methods and suggest paths for methodological progress.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Technical Working Papers with number
0329.
Length: Date of creation: Oct 2006 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberte:0329
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Nicola Lacetera & Lorenzo Zirulia, 2008.
"The Economics of Scientific Misconduct,"
CESPRI Working Papers
215, CESPRI, Centre for Research on Innovation and Internationalisation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy, revised Apr 2008.
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