Narratives and Empirical Strategies in Zvi Griliches's Early Research

Abstract Zvi Griliches was one of the leading econometricians his generation. His early work involved empirical analyses sources productivity growth in twentieth-century US agriculture, including dissertation on diffusion hybrid corn and analysis long-run fertilizer use by farmers. In this research developed theoretical explanations these phenomena form narratives rational, profit-seeking people responding to changing circumstances novel information, he used inform decisions about what statistical techniques employ how implement them. Narratives served same purposes for that mathematical models were coming serve contemporaries, but they made more sense Griliches, given belief analyzing transitions between economic equilibria, a process which economists had not useful models.