The economics commentariat – and no small part of the political debate – has been consumed in the past few weeks with controversy surrounding a piece of research by my Harvard colleagues (and friends) Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. The article, published in 2010, had been widely interpreted as showing that economic growth is likely to stagnate in a given country once the ratio of its government debt to gross domestic product exceeded a threshold of 90 per cent.

But scholars at the University of Massachusetts have demonstrated – and the duo have acknowledged – that the two professors accidentally omitted some relevant data in forming their results, thanks to a coding error. Questions have also raised with respect to how they weighted observations and which data they used.

Many have asserted that the debate undermines the claims of austerity advocates around the world that deficits should be reduced quickly. Some have gone so far as to blame Profs Reinhart and Rogoff for the unemployment of millions, asserting that they were crucial intellectual ammunition for austerity policies. Others believe that, even after review, the data support the view that deficit and debt burden reduction is important in most of the industrialised world. Still others say the controversy has called into question the usefulness of statistical research on economic policy questions.