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Do economists replicate?

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  • Ankel-Peters, Jörg
  • Fiala, Nathan
  • Neubauer, Florian

Abstract

Reanalyses of empirical studies and replications in new contexts are important for scientific progress. Journals in economics increasingly require authors to provide data and code alongside published papers, but how much does the economics profession actually replicate? This paper summarizes existing replication definitions and reviews how much economists replicate other scholars’ work. We argue that in order to counter incentive problems potentially leading to a replication crisis, replications in the spirit of Merton's ‘organized skepticism’ are needed – what we call ‘policing replications’. We review leading economics journals to show that policing replications are rare and conclude that more incentives to replicate are needed to reap the fruits of rising transparency standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Ankel-Peters, Jörg & Fiala, Nathan & Neubauer, Florian, 2023. "Do economists replicate?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 219-232.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:212:y:2023:i:c:p:219-232
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.05.009
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    Cited by:

    1. Klege, Rebecca A. & Amuakwa-Mensah, Franklin & Visser, Martine, 2022. "Tenancy and energy choices in Rwanda. A replication and extension study," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    2. Guillaume Coqueret, 2023. "Forking paths in financial economics," Papers 2401.08606, arXiv.org.
    3. Dreber, Anna & Johannesson, Magnus, 2023. "A framework for evaluating reproducibility and replicability in economics," I4R Discussion Paper Series 38, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    4. Ankel-Peters, Jörg & Fiala, Nathan & Neubauer, Florian, 2023. "Is economics self-correcting? Replications in the American Economic Review," Ruhr Economic Papers 1005, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    5. Fišar, Miloš & Greiner, Ben & Huber, Christoph & Katok, Elena & Ozkes, Ali & Management Science Reproducibility Collaboration, 2023. "Reproducibility in Management Science," Department for Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Series 03/2023, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    6. Roggenkamp, Hauke C., 2024. "Revisiting ‘Growth and Inequality in Public Good Provision’—Reproducing and Generalizing Through Inconvenient Online Experimentation," OSF Preprints 6rn97, Center for Open Science.
    7. Robert Finger & Carola Grebitus & Arne Henningsen, 2023. "Replications in agricultural economics," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 1258-1274, September.
    8. Ölkers, Tim & Kirchner, Ella & Mußhoff, Oliver, 2023. "Terrorism and land use in agriculture: The case of Boko Haram in Nigeria - a replication attempt of the paper by Adelaja & George (2019)," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Replication; Replicability; Research transparency; Meta-science; Generalizability; Systematic review;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General

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