The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives

摘要

In its March 1996 issue, this Journal carried a terrific article written by Deirdre N, McCloskey and Stephen T. Ziliak (1996). The main points of this article were: (1) statistical significance is not the same thing as substantive significance; (2) applied econometric research should be focused on substantive-in this case, economic-significance; and (3) much, if not most, applied econometric research "... takes statistical significance to be the same as economic significance" (McCloskey and Ziliak 1996, p. 98). It's worth a brief review of the 1996 article as prelude to the review of a new book by the same authors.