Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-359) and index.

Part I: Preliminaries. 1. Questions about questions ; 2. The experimental ideal -- Part II. The core. 3. Making regression make sense ; 4. Instrumental variables in action : sometimes you get what you need ; 5. Parallel Worlds: fixed effects, differences-in-differences, and panel data -- Part III: Extensions. 6. Getting a little jumpy: regression discontinuity designs ; 7. Quantile regression ; 8. Nonstandard standard error issues. In addition to econometric essentials, this book covers important new extensions as well as how to get standard errors right. The authors explain why fancier econometric techniques are typically unnecessary and even dangerous.