University of Michigan Legal Working Paper Series
University of Michigan John M. Olin Center for Law & Economics Working Paper Series
The Significance of Statistical Significance: Two Authors Restate An Incontrovertible Caution. Why a Book?
Abstract
“The Significance of Statistical Significance” reviews THE CULT OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice and Lives by Stephen T. Ziliak and Dierdre N. McCloskey. The book’s core message is that statistical significance should not be equated with substantive significance and that empirical researchers should convey more information about the magnitude of relationships and effects than many now do. This review summarizes, approves of and elaborates on Ziliak and McCloskey’s message with special attention to concerns of the legal academy. It clarifies appropriate uses of significance tests within the research framework of controlling for plausible rival hypotheses.
Subject Area
Economics
Recommended Citation
Richard Lempert,
"The Significance of Statistical Significance: Two Authors Restate An Incontrovertible Caution. Why a Book?"
(May 2008).
University of Michigan Legal Working Paper Series.
University of Michigan John M. Olin Center for Law & Economics Working Paper Series.
Working Paper 86.
http://law.bepress.com/umichlwps/olin/art86
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