Monday, March 22, 2010

Time for t? Do we misinterpret statistical significance?

The use & mis-use of significance tests is discussed occasionally, perhaps not enough, in the economics literature. McCloskey & Ziliak are well known critics of the use of t statistics in economics & elsewhere. Given that the humble t statistic is a Dublin invention (Gosset a.k.a. "Student" was chief brewer at Guinness' Brewery) there is also a certain local interest in this too.
This recent paper by Siegfried, which is strongly critical of how significance tests are used, is well worth a read in this regard.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/57091/title/Odds_are,_its_wrong

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