James Heckman (1944-now) is an American economist best known for his contributions to econometrics and labor economics. Wikipedia says,
"Heckman is noted for his contributions to selection bias and self-selection analysis especially Heckman correction, which awarded him the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is also well known for his empirical research in labor economics, particularly regarding the efficacy of early childhood education programs." (Wikipedia: James Heckman, 8.11.21 UTC 19:17)The rest of this post is some quotes from Heckman.
Critique of econometrics
"I've worked on China and trying to look at what technical change is in China. If you were to use 20 year old data sets, it's a waste of time. It's much better to actually go the sites in Shanghai and further in the interior to see what the technologies are, who is actually engaged and what kind of investment is being made. Those anecdotal accounts are things that banks do, what business school people do but it's not what a real economists does." (How the Economics of the Economics Profession Resists New Thinking, YouTube 2017)
"I think there's been a huge shift away from understanding behavior and moving towards statistical artifacts that are hard to interpret as responses to economic questions. So I think the credibility revolution has been somewhat overstated and not properly appreciated as having really turned focus away from serious economic analysis towards something I think is purely statistical." (EconTalks: James Heckman on Facts, Evidence and the State of Econometrics, 2016)
Academic journals
"If people are really aiming to go just into the top 5 journals and their goal is to publish papers as opposed to contribute to basic knowledge, I think that's a limited vision of economics and what economic research should be." (AEA Publishing and Promotion in Economics, 2017)
"Economics... is vulnerable in the following sense that if evidence is presented in anecdotal form or they say this is just descriptive, that is a killer in a lot of top journals." (How the Economics of the Economics Profession Resists New Thinking, YouTube 2017)
"Economic history has suffered a big beating. Economic historians are typically slow to get things out. They do these large scholarly studies. The tenure clock works against them and the publication journal works against them." (How the Economics of the Economics Profession Resists New Thinking, YouTube 2017)
Economic models
"Calibrated models are models looking at some stylized facts that are putting together different pieces of data that are not mutually consistent. I mean literally you take estimates of this area, and estimates from that area and you assemble something that's like a Frankenstein..." (EconTalks: James Heckman on Facts, Evidence and the State of Econometrics, 2016)
