American Economic Review Vol. 112 No. 9 2022
Methods Matter: p-Hacking and Publication Bias in Causal Analysis in Economics: Reply
Abstract
In Brodeur, Cook, and Heyes (2020) we present evidence that instrumental variable (and to a lesser extent difference-in-difference) articles are more p-hacked than randomized controlled trial and regression discontinuity design articles. We also find no evidence that (i) articles published in the top five journals are different; (ii) the “revise and resubmit” process mitigates the problem; (iii) things are improving through time. Kranz and Pütz (2022) apply a novel adjustment to address rounding errors. They successfully replicate our results with the exception of our shakiest finding: after adjusting for rounding errors, bunching of test statistics for difference-in-difference articles is now smaller around the 5 percent level (and coincidentally larger at the 10 percent level).
- DOI
- 10.1257/aer.20220277
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 3137-3139
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref