Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion (Paperback)

~ Joshua D. Angrist (Author), Jorn-Steffen Pischke (Author)
Key Phrases: draft eligibility status, sex composition instruments, propensity score theorem, Instrumental Variables, Making Regression Make Sense, Nonstandard Standard Error Issues (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A quirky and thought-provoking read for any budding econometrician. . . . Insightful and refreshing.
(James Davidson Times Higher Education )

I'd recommend it to the entire range of empirical economists, from those still in training to those who, like me, have only a hazy memory of statistical theory and stick to our tried and tested methods of estimation . . . an excellent guide to how to do basic regression/IV/panel data estimation really well. In particular, it demonstrates through many examples how to bring about a happy marriage between one's underlying model and the data which might or might not confirm the researcher's hypotheses.
(Diane Coyle The Enlightened Economist Blog )

The applied econometric methods emphasized in this book are easy to use and relevant for many areas of contemporary social sciences.
(Pavel Stoynov Zentralblatt MATH )

Review

This pathbreaking book is a must-read for any scientist who is interested in formulating and testing hypotheses about the social world. This includes political scientists, sociologists, historians, geographers, and anthropologists. The book is clever and funny, and guides you through the tangle of problems that confront empirical research in social science. I wish I had had it years ago.
(James Robinson, Harvard University )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691120358
• ISBN-13: 978-0691120355
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,850 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a useful econometrics book..., January 30, 2009

By	ReadsALot (New Jersey, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This is a wonderful book. Despite having taken many courses and read many statistics and econometrics books, I'm sometimes stuck in my own applied problems. Of course, these courses and books taught me how to derive asymptotic theorems or be careful when maximum likelihood fails, but this is not what I really need to know to solve my problems. Now with Angrist and Pischke, I have a book that is truly applied in focus -- one that explains why and how certain empirical strategies are convincing and one that is up-to-date with the latest examples of recent research employing these strategies. Real econometrics applied to real problems. This book should be on every applied economists bookshelf.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun for Labor Economists, June 1, 2009

By	Jafar Zahir "Mo'beta Jobs" (Olympia, Washington United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After drowning in Heckman, cursing Rubin and struggling with Manski, this is a welcome and needed relief. I think back to what "Thinking Strategically" was to Game Theory and must conclude that having fun must be regular and necessary phase in the gestation of an idea.
The authors take delight in the subject and dole out some of the most interesting applications from a field that's a testament to soporifics.
Trust me...if it weren't for Monster Energy drinks, none of us would understand this stuff.
Their mathematics is approachable by anyone who knows what an expectation is. They take on such opaque subjects as instrumental variables and differences-of-differences with some examples that I promise will stay with you even after you've put the book down. The subjects connect with a real ease and you're never left referring back to earlier chapters or other texts to "remember" something they've assumed you know.
On whole, they approach the subject with a joy I haven't seen since I saw a couple of otters on a water slide on the side of an island in Alaska.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource for teachers and students, March 2, 2009

By	Susan Dynarski - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mostly Harmless Econometrics is a great resource for teachers, researchers and researchers-in-training. Causal inference is an afterthought in most econometrics tests, where it gets lost in the lengthy exegesis of large-sample theory. MHE puts causal inference front and center, where it belongs. I have used the book with great success in introductory methods courses for masters' and doctoral students in public policy and education at Michigan.