Statistical Nonsignificance in Empirical Economics
Name
robust_main.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
338.33 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
a32fd0b2be4ee258d29a90042ba20c4a
Author(s)
Abadie, Alberto
Date Issued
2020
Journal
American Economic Review: Insights
Publisher
American Economic Association
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Statistical significance is often interpreted as providing greater information than nonsignificance. In this article we show, however, that rejection of a point null often carries very little information, while failure to reject may be highly informative. This is particularly true in empirical contexts that are common in economics, where data-sets are large and there are rarely reasons to put substantial prior probability on a point null. Our results challenge the usual practice of conferring point null rejections a higher level of scientific significance than non-rejections. Therefore, we advocate visible reporting and discussion of nonsignificant results. (JEL C12, C90)
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/AERI.20190252
