The Cult of Significance: Hardcover: 322+xxiv pages Publisher: The University of Michigan Press (First edition, Feb. 2008) Language: English ISBN-13: 978-0472050079

51 This book, written by economists Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey, has a theme bound to attract both Bayesians and all those puzzled by the absolute and automatic faith in significance tests exhibited in many applied papers. The authors’ main argument is indeed that an overwhelming majority of papers involved in data analysis stop at rejecting variables (“coeficients”) on the sole and unsupported basis of nonsignificance at the 5% level, hence the subtitle, “How the standard error costs us jobs, justice, and lives.” Th is is an argument I completely agree with; however, the aggressive style of the book ended up putting me off as early as the fi rst chapter. Obviously, I could have let both the matter and the book go, but I think the book may, in the end, do a disservice to a valid issue and I thus endeavour to explain why.