Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/79419 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2001
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 01-8
Publisher: 
University of California, Department of Economics, Davis, CA
Abstract: 
When a significance test fails to disconfirm a hypothesis economist often interpret this as evidence that this hypothesis is valid. Six such examples are cited from recent journals. But this is a misinterpretation of what significance tests show. Presumably this misinterpretation is founded on the valid principle that every failure to disconfirm a hypothesis adds to its credibility. But that principle defines a failure to disconfirm in a way that differs sharply from the way that this phrase is used in the context of significance tests. Some ways of ameliorating this problem exist.
Subjects: 
significance tests
t values
t coefficients
confirmation
JEL: 
C1
B4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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