Methodological Artefacts, Data Manipulation and Fraud in Economics and Social Science : Themenheft 5+6/Bd. 231(2011) Jahrbücher Für Nationalökonomie Und Statistik

Summary For decades, there has been a heated debate about whether or not nuclear power plants contribute to childhood cancer in their respective neighbourhoods, with statisticians testifying on both sides. The present paper points to some flaws in the pro-arguments, taking a recent study prepared for the political party "Bündnis 90 /Grüne" as a specimen. Typical mistakes include an understatement of the size of tests of significance, disregard of important covariates and extreme reliance on very few selected data points. Guest Editorial Abhandlungen / Original Papers Opp, Karl-Dieter, The Production of Historical "Facts": How the Wrong Number of Participants in the Leipzig Monday Demonstration on October 9, 1989 Became a Convention Krämer, Walter, Gerhard Arminger, " True Believers or Numerical Terrorism at the Nuclear Power Plant Greiser, Eberhard, One-eyed Epidemiologic Dummies at Nuclear Power Plants. A Reply to Walter Krämer and Gerhard Arminger' s Paper " True believers or Numerical Terrorism at the Nuclear Power Plant' Diekmann, Andreas, Are Most Published Research Findings False? Auspurg, Katrin, Thomas Hinz, What Fuels Publication Bias? Theoretical and Empirical Analyses of Risk Factors Using the Caliper Test Weiß, Bernd, Michael Wagner, The Identification and Prevention of Publication Bias in the Social Sciences and Economics Schräpler, Jörg-Peter, Benford's Law as an Instrument for Fraud Detection in Surveys Using the Data of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Shikano, Susumu, Verena Mack, When Does the Second-Digit Benford's Law-Test Signal an Election Fraud? Facts or Misleading Test Results Bauer, Johannes, Jochen Gross, Difficulties Detecting Fraud? The Use of Benford' s Law on Regression Tables Coutts , Elisabeth, Ben Jann, Ivar Krumpal, Anatol-Fiete Näher, Plagiarism in Student Papers: Prevalence Estimates Using Special Techniques for Sensitive Questions Franzen, Axel, Dominikus Vogl, Pitfalls of International Comparative Research: Taking Acquiescence into Account Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews Aoyama, H., Y. Fujiwara, Y. Ikeda, H. Iyetomi, W. Souma, Econophysics and Companies. Statistical Life and Death in Complex Business Networks Postler, Andreas, Nachhaltige Finanzierung der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung Ramser, Hans J., Manfred Stadler (Hrsg.), Marktmacht Bandinhalt des 231. Jahrgangs der Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie und Statistik Contents of Volume 231 of the Journal of Economics and Statistics Inhalt / Contents Guest Editorial Abhandlungen / Original Papers The Production of Historical “Facts”: How the Wrong Number of Participants in the Leipzig Monday Demonstration on October 9,1989 Became a Convention “True Believers” or Numerical Terrorism at the Nuclear Power Plant One-eyed Epidemiologie Dummies at Nuclear Power Plants Are Most Published Research Findings False? What Fuels Publication Bias? The Identification and Prevention of Publication Bias in the Social Sciences and Economics Benford’s Law as an Instrument for Fraud Detection in Surveys Using the Data of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) When Does the Second-Digit Benford's Law-Test Signal an Election Fraud? Difficulties Detecting Fraud? The Use of Benford's Law on Regression Tables Plagiarism in Student Papers: Prevalence Estimates Using Special Techniques for Sensitive Questions Pitfalls of International Comparative Research: Taking Acquiescence into Account Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews

This special issue of the Journal of Economics and Statistics is devoted to the use of agent-based models for economic policy advice. It presents a collection of research papers in different fields of applications. Special emphasis is laid on discussing the potential and possible limitations of agent-based models for economic policy advice. The editorial provides an overview on the role of agent-based modeling in economic policy referring also to the papers presented. Furthermore, it highlights the strength of the approach, i.e., the explicit microfoundation and the modeling of heterogenous agents. Finally, we also report on current limitations of the method with regard to economic policy advice and point at some areas deserving further research.