Data Download

We are pleased to provide open-access to the dataset used in our study, which encompasses detailed information extracted from over 44,000 economics working papers.

Dataset Overview

Scope:

• Papers: Approximately 45,000 working papers from NBER and CEPR (1980–2023).

• Causal Claims: Over 250,000 causal claims extracted from the papers.

Data Structure:

• Paper-Level Data: Includes metadata such as authors, titles, publication years, fields of study, empirical methods used, data accessibility, and measures of causal narrative complexity.

• Causal Claim-Level Data: Details on each causal claim within a paper, including cause and effect variables, types of causal relationships, methods used to establish causality, and mappings to JEL codes.

Using the data

This work is licensed under an Apache License 2.0 [LICENSE}. The following paper has to be cited in all publications that make use of or refer in any kind to the files provided:

Garg, P. and Fetzer, T., 2025. Causal claims in economics. arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.06873. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.06873 

We also kindly ask researchers using this to send us their paper, or a link to their paper. We will continuously upload or add links to these papers to inform the research community about ongoing progress and related work.

Access the data

Access data immediately upon completion of data request form below (or here)

Data Use Guidelines

• Use: The dataset is intended for academic research. For non-academic use, please ask for our consent.

• Cite: Please cite our paper when using the data. Suggested citation: 

Garg, P. and Fetzer, T., 2025. Causal claims in economics. arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.06873. 

Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.06873 

• Informing Us: We kindly ask researchers using the dataset to send us their paper or a link to their work. 

We look forward to seeing how our dataset contributes to new insights and advancements in economic research.