The executive committee of the American Economic Association will consider a proposal next week to require academic economists to disclose conflicts of interest, The New York Times reported today. In an essay in The Chronicle Review in October, the filmmaker Charles Ferguson argued that scholarly economics has been corrupted by economists’ overlapping roles in government and on corporate boards of directors. The new proposal urges the economic association to mimic the American Sociological Association’s conflict-of-interest policies. But the proposal’s prospects are far from assured, the Times reported, because many economists doubt that the association is well positioned to police its members’ activities.
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One Response to Economists Prepare to Debate Conflict-of-Interest Rules
jffoster - December 31, 2010 at 9:43 am
Unless the AEA has licensure or certification powers, they will have no real authority to “require” academic economists to do anything. The American Sociological Assn’s statement we are linked to above does provide for some sanctions, including expulsion from the ASA. But since the ASA has no licensure authority either, big deal. Professional associations pretending to more authority than they have are apt to have their bluff called.