Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion

From Joshua Angrist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and Jorn-Steffen Pischke, an irreverent guide to the essentials of econometrics

The core methods in today's econometric toolkit are linear regression for statistical control, instrumental variables methods for the analysis of natural experiments, and differences-in-differences methods that exploit policy changes. In the modern experimentalist paradigm, these techniques address clear causal questions such as: Do smaller classes increase learning? Should wife batterers be arrested? How much does education raise wages? Mostly Harmless Econometrics shows how the basic tools of applied econometrics allow the data to speak

In addition to econometric essentials, Mostly Harmless Econometrics covers important new extensions-regression-discontinuity designs and quantile regression-as well as how to get standard errors right.