Obviously any form of reporting is never going to be completely accurate. Most papers on the topic that I've read rely on tertiary sources. I'm sure that's necessary and I'm not here to debate the merits of doing so. My question is how does the choice of source data affect your analysis of a given position or situation.
How do you corroborate information in say a database with the results of a specific experiment/survey/etc.. What do you look for from primary sources to confirm a given position. What would be a red flag in a primary or secondary source that would bring into question a tertiary source for you?
Importantly, are there any trends that you've seen based on that selection of source data? Does selecting a particular type of source information make your predictions more or less extreme for example. How do you compensate for that in general?
How does the focus of economists on academic studies affect viewpoints compared to field studies?
byu/Tired_Linecook inAskEconomics
Posted by Tired_Linecook