Economists, Incentives, Judgment, and Empirical Work

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Economists, Incentives, Judgment, and Empirical Work

Author Info

Colander, David C.

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David Colander

Abstract

This paper asks the question: Why has the ?general-to-specific? cointegrated VAR approach as developed in Europe had only limited success in the US as a tool for doing empirical macroeconomics, where what might be called a ?theory comes first? approach dominates? The reason this paper highlights is the incompatibility of the European approach with the US focus on the journal publication metric for advancement. Specifically, the European ?general-to specific? cointegrated VAR approach requires researcher judgment to be part of the analysis, and the US focus on a journal publication metric discourages such research methods. The US ?theory comes first? approach fits much better with the journal publication metric.

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Paper provided by Kiel Institute for the World Economy in its series Economics Discussion Papers with number 2008-12.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:7213

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Paper
- Dave Colander, 2008. "Economists, Incentives, Judgement and Empirical Work," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 0806, Middlebury College, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]

Find related papers by JEL classification:
B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2008-04-29 (All new papers)
NEP-CBA-2008-04-29 (Central Banking)
NEP-ECM-2008-04-29 (Econometrics)
NEP-HPE-2008-04-29 (History & Philosophy of Economics)
NEP-PKE-2008-04-29 (Post Keynesian Economics)
NEP-SOG-2008-04-29 (Sociology of Economics)

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

Deirdre N. McCloskey & Stephen T. Ziliak, 1996. "The Standard Error of Regressions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 97-114, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Cooley, Thomas F & LeRoy, Stephen F, 1981. "Identification and Estimation of Money Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 825-44, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Sauer, Raymond D, 1988. "Estimates of the Returns to Quality and Coauthorship in Economic Academia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 855-66, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Dewald, William G & Thursby, Jerry G & Anderson, Richard G, 1986. "Replication in Empirical Economics: The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Project," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 587-603, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Colander, David, 1989. "Research on the Economics Profession," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 137-48, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Kirman, Alan & Dahl, Mogens, 1994. "Economic research in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 505-522, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Colander, David & Klamer, Arjo, 1987. "The Making of an Economist," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 95-111, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
- David Colander, 2003. "The Aging of an Economist," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 0304, Middlebury College, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
- David Colander, 2003. "The Aging of an Economist," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 157-176, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Leamer, Edward E, 1983. "Let's Take the Con Out of Econometrics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 31-43, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
- Edward E. Leamer, 1982. "Let's Take the Con Out of Econometrics," UCLA Economics Working Papers 239, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
Frey, Bruno S & Eichenberger, Reiner, 1993. "American and European Economics and Economists," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 185-93, Fall. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Julia Campos & Neil R. Ericsson & David F. Hendry, 2005. "General-to-specific modeling: an overview and selected bibliography," International Finance Discussion Papers 838, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
Peter N. Ireland, 1999. "A method for taking models to the data," Working Paper 9903, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Peter N. Ireland, 1999. "A Method for Taking Models to the Data," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 421, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
- Peter Ireland, 1999. "A Method for Taking Models to the Data," Computing in Economics and Finance 1999 1233, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
- Ireland, Peter N., 2004. "A method for taking models to the data," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1205-1226, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
- Peter Ireland, 1999. "Matlab code for A Method for Taking Models to the Data," QM&RBC Codes 46, Quantitative Macroeconomics & Real Business Cycles. [Downloadable!]

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

Spanos, Aris, 2008. "The 'Pre-Eminence of Theory' versus the 'General-to-Specific' Cointegrated VAR Perspectives in Macro-Econometric Modeling," Economics Discussion Papers 2008-25, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]

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