The Nature of Inflation

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I think it's very hard in a complicated world for people to concede that they're pet theory. And this is on both sides of the amal pick on my own views, which are very Friedman and Schwartz influenced. We can do better than Friedman and Schwartz with the kind of tools that are around today. But I have to mention that in 1945, there was a remarkable natural experiment that World War II ended. It did not change them.

Joshua Angrist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the craft of econometrics--how to use economic thinking and statistical methods to make sense of data and uncover causation. Angrist argues that improvements in research design along with various econometric techniques have improved the credibility of measurement in a complex world. Roberts pushes back and the conversation concludes with a discussion of how to assess the reliability of findings in controversial public policy areas.