Dan Klein, the franc-tireur of economics, has a new great project for his Econ Journal Watch. With the help of Peter Gordon, he is organizing a symposium on the inner life of economists and their two selves: the public one and the private one. The symposium is entitled Economic Notes from the Underground (see call for papers). Do economists engage in what Timur Kuran calls preference falsification (i.e. they publicly express views or attitudes that are false to their true private views)?
In order to find out they are asking economists to confess (anonymously if they want) their true identity and offer testimonies of their lives in the underground. “The impetus of the symposium is to provide an outlet for exploring preference falsification and other forms of moral or intellectual compromise within the economics profession. Authors are encouraged to be introspective and personal, and yet impartial. The purpose of each essay should be to share experiences that speak to situations to which many can relate.”
While the submissions can be anonymous, I wonder how much bias and self-deception Dan and Peter will find. This morning an NPR report explained that the crisis has brought economists of various backgrounds together.
On another note, check out Dan Klein’s interesting video on YouTube on “The Davos Question: Dug Approval Denationalization.”
This sounds fascinating!!!
Posted by: Daniel J. D'Amico | October 24, 2008 at 10:15 AM