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The Role Of Ideology In Disagreements Among Economists. A Quantitative Analisis:

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  • Thomas Mayer

Abstract

How justified is the charge that ideology strongly influences the allegedly objective opinions of economists? An analysis of a new survey of AEA members and of surveys by Fuchs et al of labor economists and public economists shows that value judgments and judgments about the government's efficacy have some influence on the way economists think about what should be purely economic issues. But such influence is not strong enough to explain much of the disagreement among economists.

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  • Thomas Mayer, "undated". "The Role Of Ideology In Disagreements Among Economists. A Quantitative Analisis:," Department of Economics 00-01, California Davis - Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:fth:caldec:00-01
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    1. Henry Woo, 1994. "Three images of economics and its progress," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 57-64.
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    3. Thomas Mayer, "undated". "Monetarists And Keynesians On Central Banking: A Study Of A Failed Debate," Department of Economics 96-06, California Davis - Department of Economics.
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    6. Victor R. Fuchs & Alan B. Krueger & James M. Poterba, 1998. "Economists' Views about Parameters, Values, and Policies: Survey Results in Labor and Public Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 1387-1425, September.
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    8. David Colander, 2018. "Vision, judgment, and disagreement among economists," Chapters, in: How Economics Should Be Done, chapter 2, pages 11-24, Edward Elgar Publishing.
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    11. Frey, Bruno S & Eichenberger, Reiner, 1992. "Economics and Economists: A European Perspective," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 216-220, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Mayer, 2006. "The Empirical Significance of Econometric Models," Working Papers 620, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    2. Javdani, Mohsen & Chang, Ha-Joon, 2019. "Who Said or What Said? Estimating Ideological Bias in Views Among Economists," IZA Discussion Papers 12738, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Bruno Frey & Silke Humbert & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "What is economics? Attitudes and views of German economists," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 317-332.
    4. Potrafke, Niklas, 2013. "Minority positions in the German Council of Economic Experts: A political economic analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 180-187.
    5. Karl Beyer & Stephan Puehringer, 2019. "Divided we stand? Professional consensus and political conflict in academic economics," ICAE Working Papers 94, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    6. Frederik Carlsson & Mitesh Kataria & Elina Lampi & M. Vittoria Levati, 2010. "Doing good with other people's money: A charitable giving experiment with students in environmental sciences and economics," Jena Economics Research Papers 2010-089, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    7. Christoph Schinke, 2016. "Wealth and Politics: Studies on Inter Vivos Transfers and Partisan Effects," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 67.
    8. Ha Quyen Ngo & Niklas Potrafke & Marina Riem & Christoph Schinke, 2018. "Ideology and Dissent among Economists: The Joint Economic Forecast of German Economic Research Institutes," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 44(1), pages 135-152, January.
    9. Klaus Mohn, 2010. "Autism in Economics? A Second Opinion," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 39(2), pages 191-208, July.
    10. Sami Diaf & Jörg Döpke & Ulrich Fritsche & Ida Rockenbach, 2020. "Sharks and minnows in a shoal of words: Measuring latent ideological positions of German economic research institutes based on text mining techniques," Macroeconomics and Finance Series 202001, University of Hamburg, Department of Socioeconomics.
    11. Pühringer, Stephan & Bäuerle, Lukas & Engartner, Tim, 2017. "Was denken (zukünftige) ÖkonomInnen? Einblicke in die politische und gesellschaftliche Wirkmächtigkeit ökonomischen Denkens," Working Paper Series Ök-34, Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, Institut für Ökonomie.
    12. Correa Mautz, Feipe, 2017. "La economía como argumento político: evidencia de estudiantes de economía en Chile," Documentos de Trabajo 4, Estudios Nueva Economía.
    13. Thomas Mayer, 2009. "Honesty and Integrity in Economics," Working Papers 160, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    14. Marina Riem, 2017. "Essays on the Behavior of Firms and Politicians," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 73.
    15. Kataria, Mitesh, 2012. "The role of preferences in disagreements over scientific hypothesis: Evidence on cognitive bias in formation of beliefs," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 364-369.
    16. Cárdenas, Roberto, 2015. "La no-reforma curricular en Ingeniería Comercial, Universidad de Concepción," Estudios Nueva Economía, Estudios Nueva Economía, vol. 5(2), pages 64-72.
    17. Diaf, Sami & Döpke, Jörg & Fritsche, Ulrich & Rockenbach, Ida, 2022. "Sharks and minnows in a shoal of words: Measuring latent ideological positions based on text mining techniques," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

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