IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/amu/wpaper/1205.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Don't Put the Cart Before the Horse: Teaching the Economic Approach to Empirical Research

Author

Listed:
  • Bradley A. Hansen
  • Mary Eschelbach Hansen

    (Department of Economics, American University)

Abstract

When students are taught how to do original research in courses outside economics, they are taught to begin with the collection of data. This is not the approach followed by economists, who typically begin an answer to a research question by developing a model. The model then guides the search for evidence. We argue that the economic approach is more likely to lead to the development of a persuasive argument, and that greater awareness of the contrast between the economic approach and its alternatives can enable economists to improve the teaching of the research process.

Suggested Citation

  • Bradley A. Hansen & Mary Eschelbach Hansen, 2005. "Don't Put the Cart Before the Horse: Teaching the Economic Approach to Empirical Research," Working Papers 2005-12, American University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:1205
    DOI: 10.17606/A7VT-9P34
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17606/A7VT-9P34
    File Function: First version, 2005
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17606/A7VT-9P34?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCloskey, Donald N, 1983. "The Rhetoric of Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 481-517, June.
    2. Blinder, Alan S, 1991. "Why Are Prices Sticky? Preliminary Results from an Interview Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 89-96, May.
    3. Shaban, Radwan Ali, 1987. "Testing between Competing Models of Sharecropping," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(5), pages 893-920, October.
    4. Garfinkel, Michelle R & Glazer, Amihai, 1994. "Does Electoral Uncertainty Cause Economic Fluctuations?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 169-173, May.
    5. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2000. "The Contributions of the Economics of Information to Twentieth Century Economics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1441-1478.
    6. Fogel, Robert William, 1962. "A Quantitative Approach to the Study of Railroads in American Economic Growth: A Report of Some Preliminary Findings," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 163-197, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robert Sproule & C?lin Vâlsan, 2009. "The student evaluation of teaching: its failure as a research program, and as an administrative guide," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 11(25), pages 125-150, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul Downward & Frederick Lee, "undated". "Post Keynesian Pricing Theory `Reconfirmed'(?) A Critical Review of `Asking About Prices'," Working Papers 98-13, Staffordshire University, Business School.
    2. Doran, Áine, 2021. "A poor inquiry: Poverty and living standards in pre-famine Ireland," QUCEH Working Paper Series 21-01, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    3. John Quiggin, 2006. "Stories about productivity," Australian Public Policy Program Working Papers WP4P06, Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University of Queensland.
    4. Wilfred Dolfsma, 2001. "Economists as subjects: Toward a psychology of economists," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 77-88, March.
    5. Petrick, Martin, 2004. "Can Econometric Analysis Make (Agricultural) Economics A Hard Science? Critical Remarks And Implications For Economic Methodology," IAMO Discussion Papers 14911, Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    6. Marco Hoeberichts & Ad Stokman, 2010. "Price setting behaviour in the Netherlands: results of a survey," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2-3), pages 135-149.
    7. Rosane Maria Seibert & Clea Beatriz Macagnan & Robert Dixon & Davi Souza Simon, 2019. "Social responsibility indicators: perspective of stakeholders in Brazil and in the UK," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 16(2), pages 128-144, July.
    8. J. Kornai., 2002. "The System Paradigm," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, vol. 4.
    9. Suzuki, Tomo, 2003. "The accounting figuration of business statistics as a foundation for the spread of economic ideas," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 65-95, January.
    10. Raymond E. Lombra, 1992. "Understanding the Remarkable Survival of Multiplier Models of Money Stock Determination," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 305-314, Summer.
    11. Alnoor Bhimani, 2008. "Making corporate governance count: the fusion of ethics and economic rationality," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 12(2), pages 135-147, May.
    12. Cristiano Antonelli, 2007. "Localized Technological Knowledge: Pecuniary Knowledge Externalities And Appropriability," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2007-09, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    13. Klepper, Gernot, 1984. "Endogenous tariff formation in a political market for protection," Kiel Working Papers 224, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    14. Dixon, Huw D. & Grimme, Christian, 2022. "State-dependent or time-dependent pricing? New evidence from a monthly firm-level survey: 1980–2017," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    15. Rajshri Jayaraman & Debraj Ray & Francis de V´ericourt, 2014. "Productivity Response to a Contract Change," Working Papers id:5685, eSocialSciences.
    16. Ester Faia & Vincenzo Pezone, 2024. "The Cost of Wage Rigidity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 301-339.
    17. Freiesleben, Johannes, 2008. "A proposal for an economic quality loss function," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 1012-1024, June.
    18. Jose María Martín‐Martín & María S. Ostos‐Rey & Jose A. Salinas‐Fernández, 2019. "Why Regulation Is Needed in Emerging Markets in the Tourism Sector," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(1), pages 225-254, January.
    19. Graupe, Silja & Steffestun, Theresa, 2018. ""The market deals out profit and losses": Wie ökonomische Standardlehrbücher das unreflektierte Denken in Metaphern fördern," Working Paper Serie des Instituts für Ökonomie Ök-38, Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG), Institut für Ökonomie.
    20. Konstantin Buechel, Stephan Kyburz, 2016. "Fast Track to Growth? The Impact of Railway Access on Regional Economic Development in 19th Century Switzerland," Diskussionsschriften credresearchpaper12, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft - CRED.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    teaching economics; research methods;

    JEL classification:

    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:1205. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Meal (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.