This paper argues that mainstream economics does not follow the positivist research tradition it (often implicitly) claims to follow and expresses some serious doubt that econometrics in particular can make economics a hard science. Mathematical rigour and sophisticated statistical techniques...

Although the concept of randomized assignment in order to control for extraneous factors reaches back hundreds of years, the first empirical use appears to have been in an 1835 trial of homeopathic medicine. Throughout the 19th century there was primarily a growing awareness of the need for...

The values, faiths and virtues generate relatively stable attitudes and enduring predispositions of behavior, manifested in relation to a situation or person. The Weberian secularization hypothesis shows that, while the process of economic development is launched, the religious institution plays...

The bootstrap of test statistics requires the re-estimation of the model's parameters for each bootstrap sample. When parameter estimates are not available in closed form, this procedure becomes computationally demanding as each replication requires the numerical optimization of an objective...

This paper advances the use of pre-analysis plans in non-experimental research settings. In a study of recent minimum wage changes, we demonstrate how analyses of medium- and long-run impacts of policy interventions can be pre-specified as extensions to short-run analyses. Further, our...

This paper advances the use of pre-analysis plans in non-experimental research settings. In a study of recent minimum wage changes, we demonstrate how analyses of medium- and long-run impacts of policy interventions can be pre-specified as extensions to short-run analyses. Further, our...

This paper develops policy recommendations on the use of cluster-based economic policies and the adoption of a new concept of competitiveness in the context of the new growth path that WWWforEurope aims to outline. A first section discusses summarizes key findings from the previous research...