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Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly

Joshua Angrist and Jorn-Steffen Pischke

No 10535, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The past half-century has seen economic research become increasingly empirical, while the nature of empirical economic research has also changed. In the 1960s and 1970s, an empirical economist's typical mission was to "explain" economic variables like wages or GDP growth. Applied econometrics has since evolved to prioritize the estimation of specific causal effects and empirical policy analysis over general models of outcome determination. Yet econometric instruction remains mostly abstract, focusing on the search for "true models" and technical concerns associated with classical regression assumptions. Questions of research design and causality still take a back seat in the classroom, in spite of having risen to the top of the modern empirical agenda. This essay traces the divergent development of econometric teaching and empirical practice, arguing for a pedagogical paradigm shift.

Keywords: econometrics; teaching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm, nep-his and nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, 31 (2), 125–144

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