The traditional statistical education is compared to learning about the parts of a tool like a chainsaw without actually using it to cut down trees. The need to move beyond just running regressions and statistical analyses is emphasized, urging to understand the implications, reliability, and whether the analysis actually answers the questions at hand rather than just being used as ammunition in policy battles.
There's often a gap between the textbook treatment of statistics and the cookbook treatment--how to cook up the numbers when you're in the kitchen of the real world. Jeremy Weber of the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Statistics for Public Policy hopes his book can close that gap. He talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how to use numbers thoughtfully and honestly.