EconBase
← All papers

Detecting p-hacking

Graham Elliott, Nikolay Kudrin, Kaspar Wuthrich

arXiv 16 Jun 2019 · Econometrics · publishedEconometrica (2022) · 58 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1906.06711 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We theoretically analyze the problem of testing for $p$-hacking based on distributions of $p$-values across multiple studies. We provide general results for when such distributions have testable restrictions (are non-increasing) under the null of no $p$-hacking. We find novel additional testable restrictions for $p$-values based on $t$-tests. Specifically, the shape of the power functions results in both complete monotonicity as well as bounds on the distribution of $p$-values. These testable restrictions result in more powerful tests for the null hypothesis of no $p$-hacking. When there is also publication bias, our tests are joint tests for $p$-hacking and publication bias. A reanalysis of two prominent datasets shows the usefulness of our new tests.

Citation extraction

32
references
53
in-text mentions
32
distinct cited
1
self-citations
9,638
main-text words

appendix boundary found by none_found · 100% of the source is main text. Read the extracted text to check this.

Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Simonsohn, U., Nelson, L. D., and Simmons, J. P (2014) P-curve: a key to the file-drawer1.00074100%
2Head, M. L., Holman, L., Lanfear, R., Kahn, A. T., and Jennions, M. D (2015) The extent and consequences of p-hacking in science0.92844100%
3Brodeur, A., Lé, M., Sangnier, M., and Zylberberg, Y (2016) Star wars: The empirics strike back0.87452100%
4Cox, G. and Shi, X (2020) Simple adaptive size-exact testing for full-vector and subvector inference in moment inequality models0.73732100%
5Head, M. L., Holman, L., Lanfear, R., Kahn, A. T., and Jennions, M. D (2016) Data from: The extent and consequences of p-hacking in science0.64441100%
6Simonsohn, U., Simmons, J. P., and Nelson, L. D (2015) Better p-curves: Making p-curve analysis more robust to errors, fraud, and ambitious p-hacking, a reply to Ulrich and Miller (20…0.64422100%
7Beare, B. K. and Moon, J.-M (2015) Nonparametric tests of density ratio ordering0.51121100%
8Brodeur, A., Lé, M., Sangnier, M., and Zylberberg, Y (2016) Replication data for: Star wars: The empirics strike back0.51121100%
9R Core Team (2020) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing0.40511100%
10Andrews, I. and Kasy, M (2019) Identification of and correction for publication bias0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 32 scored citations.