"This article considers the relationship between the use of regressions and the use of variance contrast methods to uncover social interactions. We illustrate how these methods employ different identifying assumptions and are therefore complementary approaches. We also provide formal...

This paper examines Lionel Robbins' critical attitude towards formal empirical work from the standpoint of modern econometrics. It argues that his attitude towards empirical work rested on indefensible assumptions and that he failed to realise that the role he saw for empirical work undermined...