I come from the econometrics end of things and Paul Romer (Nobel Prize winner) put it well: 'A fact beats theory every time...And I think economists have focus

I come from the econometrics end of things and Paul Romer (Nobel Prize winner) put it well: 'A fact beats theory every time...And I think economists have focused on theory because it's easier than collecting data.' When I read this article this is exactly what I thought of -- modeling/researchers always focus on the low hanging fruit which is sitting in their comfy chair in their ~200 year old university developing hyper-complicated models rather than going out and collecting data that would answer their questions.