I would be interested in some speculations about why economics has taken
an empirical direction.
I don't doubt that the NBER has played a positive role by providing
congenial forums in which empirical economists can exchange ideas and in
other ways. However, my assumption would be that the main force has been
the tremendous fall in the cost of computing. It is much much easier to
compile and manipulate large data sets than it was 25 or 30 years ago.
The funding agencies may also have played a role. My impression is
that NSF and NIH favor projects that collect and make available large
data sets. And there have been some developments in econometrics (VARs)
that are data intensive. But, of course, the development of
data-intensive econometric techniques is partly the result of the fall
in computing costs.
Hugh Rockoff