In economics, there are so many decision nodes to try different things that you can't even count them. In epidemiology and genetics, for example, it's very difficult to estimate the exact multiplicity burden in that case. "We are probably fooling ourselves because we're going down that Garden of Forking Pass," he says.
John Ioannidis of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his research on the reliability of published research findings. They discuss Ioannidis's recent study on bias in economics research, meta-analysis, the challenge of small sample analysis, and the reliability of statistical significance as a measure of success in empirical research.