Stephen Ziliak

Stephen T. Ziliak (born October 17, 1963) is an American professor of economics. He currently works at Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL. He previously taught for the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory, and Bowling Green. Much of his work has focused welfare and poverty, rhetoric, and the philosophy of science and statistics. Most known for his works in the field of statistical significance, Ziliak gained notoriety from his 1996 article, "The Standard Error of Regressions" and later his book The Cult of Statistical Significance, on the difference between scientific significance and statistical significance,^[1] both coauthored with Deirdre McCloskey .

Career

Ziliak received his B.A. in Economics from Indiana University and a doctorate degree in Economics from the University of Iowa. While at Iowa, he served as the resident scholar in the Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry, co-writing the now-famous paper The Standard Error of Regressions. Following the completion of his degree, he taught at Bowling Green, Emory, Georgia Tech, and (currently) Roosevelt University.

Work on Rhetoric and Statistical Significance

While at Iowa, Ziliak became friends with his dissertation adviser, Deirdre McCloskey. He and McCloskey shared an interest in the fields of rhetoric and statistical significance — namely how the two concepts merge in modern economics. In their paper, The Standard Error of Regressions, McCloskey and Ziliak argue that econometrics greatly over-values and vastly misuses statistical significance testing — Students t-test. They claim econometricians rely too heavily on statistical significance, but too little on actual economic significance. The paper also reviews and critiques over 40 years worth of published papers in economic journals to see if and how ambiguity and misuse of statistical significance affect the author's article. Some economists call this opinion the McCloskey critique.

Ziliak's current projects include an economic history study of the experimental philosophy and econometric practice of William S. Gosset (1876-1937) aka "Student", the inventor of "Student's" t and celebrated Head Brewer of Guinness.^[2]

Publications

• The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives University of Michigan Press, 2008. With Deirdre McCloskey.
• The Economic Conversation (forthcoming 2010). With Arjo Klamer and Deirdre McCloskey.

Articles

• McCloskey D, Ziliak S T. (1996 March). The Standard Error of Regressions, Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 34:97-114.
• McCloskey D, Ziliak S T. (2004). Size Matters: The Standard Error of Regressions in the American Economic Review, Econ Journal Watch. 1(2) 331-338.
• The End of Welfare and the Contradiction of Compassion, The Independent Review I (1, Spring 1996), pp. 55–73
• Kicking the Malthusian Vice: Lessons from the Abolition of `Welfare' in the Late Nineteenth Century, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 37 (2, Summer 1997), pp. 449–68.
• D. N. McCloskey and the Rhetoric of a Scientific Economics, pp. ix-xxvi, in S. T. Ziliak, ed., Measurement and Meaning in Economics (2001).
• What are Models for?, In Warren J. Samuels and Jeff E. Biddle, eds., Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 19-A (Elsevier Press, 2001), pp. 149–159.
• Pauper Fiction in Economic Science: `Paupers in Almshouses' and the Odd Fit of Oliver Twist, Review of Social Economy 55 (2, June 2002), pp. 159–181.
• Haiku Economics, Rethinking Marxism 14 (September 2002), pp. 111–112.
• The Significance of the Economics Research Paper, In Edward Fullbrook, ed., A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics (Anthem Press 2004), Chp. 21, pp. 223–236.

References

External links

• Stephen Ziliak's Roosevelt University Faculty Home Page
• Stephen T. Ziliak's Safe Place on the Web