Never ever modify raw data

Reinhart and Rogoff, two Harvard economists, published a paper in 2010 titled Growth in a Time of Debt.

Their work suggested that countries with public debt exceeding 90% of GDP experience markedly lower economic growth. This conclusion had a substantial impact on economic policy discussions worldwide.

However, in 2013, a significant flaw in their analysis was discovered by Thomas Herndon

who attempted to replicate Reinhart and Rogoff's results for an assignment.

He found a spreadsheet error!

An incorrect formula in Excel that excluded certain data rows from their calculations. This error led to skewed results.

When corrected for these errors, the strong relationship between high debt and low growth that Reinhart and Rogoff had reported was significantly weakened. This revelation sparked a major debate

in the economics community about data integrity, replication in research, and the influence of academic work on public policy.

The Reinhart and Rogoff episode serves as a powerful lesson on the importance of meticulous data handling and the potential consequences of mistakes in data analysis.