Researchers utilizing regression discontinuity design (RDD) commonly test for running variable (RV) manipulation around a cutoff, but incorrectly assert that insignificant manipulation test statistics are evidence of negligible manipulation. I introduce simple frequentist equivalence testing...

Schwardmann et al. (2022) provide evidence from real-world debating competitions, that being randomly assigned to, and arguing for a given motion, increases one's own beliefs in the merit of the motion, and increases beliefs that factual statements in support of the motion, are correct. We...

Gendron-Carrier et al. (2022) studies the effect of subway openings on urban air pollution. The authors find a null average effect, but a negative effect in cities with high initial pollution. In this comment, I perform several robustness checks on the negative effect for high-pollution cities,...

Barro et al. (2022) investigate the quantity of safe assets held in the cross-section of developed countries and find that the average safe-asset ratio (ratio of safe assets to total assets) was 37% in 2015 and has remained relatively stable over time. They also document a crowding-out...

The so-called credibility revolution dominates empirical economics, with its promise of causal identification to improve scientific knowledge and ultimately policy. By examining the case of rural electrification in the Global South, this opinion paper exposes the limits of this evidence-based...

Schulz (2022) shows how weak kin networks contributed to the rise of participatory institutions and how the medieval Catholic Church marriage regulations prohibitions contributed to the process by destroying European clan-based kin networks. Three pieces of evidence construct the argument....