Complete Table of Contents

Preface: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

Introduction: Let's Get Some Things Out of the Way Right Now

1 Craftsmanship and Credibility in Economic Research

1. Economic Research and the Scientific Method
2. Taking Inventory
3. Economic Research and Craftsmanship
4. Plan of the Book

Part 1: Ways of Thinking

2 Systems

1. Thinking in Terms of Systems
2. Identifying Systems
3. Uses of Systems Thinking
   1. Labor Supply in Europe
   2. Worker Motivation in the Steel Industry
   3. Children's Rights in Nigeria

3 Scale

1. The Nature of Scale
2. Scale Analysis in Economics
3. Heuristics
4. Non-Reductive Uses of Scale
5. Conclusion

Part 2: Ways of Seeing

4 Vernacular Knowledge

1. The Role of Vernacular Knowledge in Economic Research
2. Vernacular Knowledge as Context
3. Vernacular Knowledge in Action
   1. Point Shaving in College Basketball
   2. The Incentive Effects of Grades
   3. Turnout in Union Certification Elections
4. Acquiring Vernacular Knowledge
5. Conclusion

5 Data

1. How to Think about the Economic Analysis of Data
   1. Measurement and Legitimacy
   2. Patents
   3. School Accountability
2. Validity
3. Getting to Know Your Data
   1. Data Precision
   2. Data Accuracy
   3. Data Span
4. Consequences of Data Problems

Part 3: Ways of Doing

6 Theory and Models

1. The Nature of a Model
2. The Central Conundrum of Economic Modeling
   1. Exactitude
   2. Abstraction
   3. Casual Depth
3. Setting Up Estimation and Testing
   1. Taking a Model Seriously
   2. Casual Predictions
   3. Competing Theories
4. Conclusion

7 Description

1. Principles of Effective Description
   1. Self-Determination
   2. Transparency and Redundancy
   3. Honoring Scale
   4. Beer Prices and the Bundesliga
2. Techniques of Effective Description
   1. Embed the Micropicture in the Macropicture
   2. Unlock Kinetic Potential
   3. Maximize Information Transfer
3. Shaping the Container
   1. Continuity
   2. Depicting and Defending the Assumptions
4. Conclusion

8 Econometric Modeling

1. The Experimental Content of Econometric Analyses
   1. The Experimental Unit
   2. The Structure of X
   3. The Structure of ε
2. Building Econometric Models
   1. Describing Outcome and Process
   2. The Reach-Grasp Problem
   3. Shaping the Container
   4. One Principle to Rule Them All
3. The Econometrics of Orchestra Auditions
4. Conclusion

Part 4: Ways of Knowing

9 Testing

1. The Nature of Hypothesis Testing in Economics
2. Three Ways to Enhance Testing
   1. Refine the Null
   2. Amplify the Alternatives
   3. Expand the Predictions
3. Check Yourself

10 The Ends of Your Means

1. Results, Not Methods
2. Coherence
3. Connecting Your Results to the Literature
   1. Describing the Literature
   2. Explaining the Literature
   3. Coherence--Again

11 The Narrative in the Numbers

1. Closing the Loop
   1. Team Incentives in HMOs
   2. The Housing Crash
   3. Development in the Tropics
2. Organic Knowledge
   1. Seeing the Problem on Its Terms
   2. Organizing Principles
3. Teenage Fatherhood and the Pursuit of Happiness
4. Conclusion

Conclusion

Glossary

Index