Via Chronicle.com:
Following heavy scrutiny of economists' conflicts of interest before the financial crash of 2008, the American Economic Association has adopted new guidelines at its annual meeting here that require scholars to divulge who supports the research they publish in the association's journals.
The statement of principles (see below), as it is technically known, was adopted unanimously on Thursday by the executive committee of the association after a private and "spirited discussion," said Orley C. Ashenfelter, a professor of economics at Princeton University and president of the association. It will go into effect over the course of the year.
The guidelines came about after harsh criticism, most pointedly in the movie Inside Job, that academic economists accepted payment from and took seats on the boards of directors of businesses and, in some cases, governments without disclosing it. The economists' analyses often touted those groups' interests in what otherwise appeared to be disinterested scholarly papers and public commentary.
I've said this before, but this isn't a problem in the field of environmental economics. Most of us enjoy the boast of acknowledging funding sources.
And while this only applies to AEA journals, they are recommending that other economics journals adopt the same standards (which is where the title comes from as the JSE already has this requirement).
Leave a Reply