In an earlier message, William Sjostrom suggested that Levitt's research is typical of the economics field. I am very curious about this statement, because it is at odds with my casual empiricism, and I would like to see it backed by some concrete evidence. Perhaps this reflects my own ignorance of the literature, but I would like to know who does such clever, but careful empirical work. If this is true, I'd like to read it. Are there people out there that collect interesting data to approach previously intractable questions from a new direction?
The best example of this that I can think of is a working paper that estimated the scope of corruption in Indonesia by looking at how the stock prices of companies that has close links to the Suharto government reacted to news about his health. I can't seem to find this paper to provide you with a citation. Dimitriy V. Masterov _______________________________________________________________________________ Dimitriy V. Masterov Center for Social Program Evaluation 1155 East 60th St. Room 038 Chicago, IL 60637 Work: (773)256-6005 Fax: (773)256-6313