Job Market Stars: P-hacking in the Economics Job Market
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SeriesBrown Bag Seminars General Economics
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FieldEmpirical Microeconomics
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LocationErasmus University Rotterdam, E building, Kitchen/Lounge E1
Rotterdam -
Date and time
October 12, 2023
12:00 - 13:00
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the extent of p-hacking in Ph.D. candidates’ job market papers at leading economic departments. For our analysis, we collect and analyze more than 3000 hypothesis tests drawn from 150 job market papers. We find that the extent of p-hacking is comparable to what is observed in top economics journals. We then link the observed excess of statistical significance with i) candidates’ placement ii) publication of the job market paper iii) job market tightness (before/during covid) iv) supervisors’ p-hacking. Joint paper with Abel Brodeur and Lamis Kattan.