Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly

Joshua Angrist and Jorn-Steffen Pischke

No 23144, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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.

JEL-codes: A22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pke
Note: CH ED EH LS PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Published as Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2017. "Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 125-144, Spring.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23144.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly (2017)
Working Paper: Undergraduate econometrics instruction: through our classes, darkly (2017)
Working Paper: Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23144

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23144

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().