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On the Need for a Replication Journal

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  • Christian Zimmermann

Abstract

There is very little replication of research in economics, particularly compared with other sciences. This paper argues that there is a dire need for studies that replicate research, that their scarcity is due to poor or negative rewards for replicators, and that this could be improved with a journal that exclusively publishes replication studies. I then discuss how such a journal could be organized, in particular in the face of some negative rewards some replication studies may elicit.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Zimmermann, 2015. "On the Need for a Replication Journal," Working Papers 2015-16, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2015-016
    DOI: 10.20955/wp.2015.016
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Herndon & Michael Ash & Robert Pollin, 2014. "Does high public debt consistently stifle economic growth? A critique of Reinhart and Rogoff," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 38(2), pages 257-279.
    2. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2010. "Growth in a Time of Debt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 573-578, May.
    3. Michael A. Clemens, 2017. "The Meaning Of Failed Replications: A Review And Proposal," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 326-342, February.
    4. Kleiber Christian & Zeileis Achim, 2013. "Reproducible Econometric Simulations," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 89-99, July.
    5. Abel Brodeur & Mathias Lé & Marc Sangnier & Yanos Zylberberg, 2016. "Star Wars: The Empirics Strike Back," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-32, January.
    6. Johnson, Simon & Larson, William & Papageorgiou, Chris & Subramanian, Arvind, 2013. "Is newer better? Penn World Table Revisions and their impact on growth estimates," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 255-274.
    7. Michael Clemens, 2015. "The Meaning of Failed Replications: A Review and Proposal - Working Paper 399," Working Papers 399, Center for Global Development.
    8. Maren Duvendack & Richard W. Palmer-Jones & W. Robert Reed, 2015. "Replications in Economics: A Progress Report," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 12(2), pages 164–191-1, May.
    9. 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.
    10. B. D. McCullough & H. D. Vinod, 2003. "Verifying the Solution from a Nonlinear Solver: A Case Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 873-892, June.
    11. B.D. McCullough, 2009. "Open Access Economics Journals and the Market for Reproducible Economic Research," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 117-126, March.
    12. Zacharias Maniadis & Fabio Tufano & John A. List, 2014. "One Swallow Doesn't Make a Summer: New Evidence on Anchoring Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 277-290, January.
    13. B.D. McCullough & Kerry Anne McGeary & Teresa D. Harrison, 2008. "Do economics journal archives promote replicable research?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(4), pages 1406-1420, November.
    14. Jan H. Höffler, 2014. "Teaching Replication in Quantitative Empirical Economics," Replication Working Papers 2/2014, Institut für Statistik und Ökonometrie, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Replication project.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Econometrics Reading List for November
      by Dave Giles in Econometrics Beat: Dave Giles' Blog on 2017-11-05 23:25:00
    2. Secret Data
      by John H. Cochrane in The Grumpy Economist on 2015-12-29 03:03:00
    3. JOHN COCHRANE: Secret Data
      by replicationnetwork in The Replication Network on 2015-12-31 03:24:53

    RePEc Biblio mentions

    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Economics Profession > Publishing in Economics > Replication

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Garret Christensen & Edward Miguel, 2018. "Transparency, Reproducibility, and the Credibility of Economics Research," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 920-980, September.
    2. Colliard, Jean-Edouard & Hurlin, Christophe & Pérignon, Christophe, 2019. "Reproducibility Certification in Economics Research," HEC Research Papers Series 1345, HEC Paris.
    3. Brown, Annette N. & Wood, Benjamin Douglas Kuflick, 2018. "Which tests not witch hunts: A diagnostic approach for conducting replication research," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-26.
    4. Opoku-Agyemang, Kweku A., 2017. "A Human-Computer Interaction Approach for Integrity in Economics," SocArXiv ra3cs, Center for Open Science.
    5. Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok, 2016. "A Skeptical View of the National Science Foundation's Role in Economic Research," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 235-248, Summer.
    6. Robert Kirkby, 2023. "Quantitative Macroeconomics: Lessons Learned from Fourteen Replications," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 61(2), pages 875-896, February.
    7. Heinrich, Torsten, 2016. "The Narrow and the Broad Approach to Evolutionary Modeling in Economics," MPRA Paper 75797, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Andrew C. Chang & Phillip Li & Shawn M. Martin, 2018. "Comparing cross‐country estimates of Lorenz curves using a Dirichlet distribution across estimators and datasets," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 473-478, April.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A1 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology

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