{"id":2767,"date":"2010-12-31T09:21:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T16:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonapollovoss.local\/?p=2767"},"modified":"2018-08-16T17:44:03","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T21:44:03","slug":"finally-ethical-economists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/2010\/12\/31\/finally-ethical-economists\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally, ethical economists"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems appropriate to close out my second year as a blog writer with a topic near and dear to my heart: ethics in business…<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to its annual meeting, the American Economic Association, has leaked to the New York Times that it intends to discuss a “code of ethics” for its membership to sign and, hopefully, adhere to in the future.\u00a0 The A.E.A. has lagged other professional associations in forging and enforcing a code of ethics for its members.\u00a0 This is shocking to me.\u00a0 Why?<\/span><\/p>\n

Economists are a very special kind of academic because the profession frequently is called upon to advise politicians at every level: local, state-level and national.\u00a0 It is very common for high profile economists to advise the Democratic, or Republican parties and senators and representatives.\u00a0 These relationships create conflicts of interest when academic “research” is sponsored and utilized by an interested party.\u00a0 The problem is that academic research has the whiff of “scientific impartiality.”\u00a0 Up until now these conflicts of interest were not required to be disclosed to the public.\u00a0 See, for example, my post entitled, “more financial industry b.s.<\/a>“<\/span><\/p>\n

Expect resistance from lots of levels of society; the academic finance folks, especially.\u00a0 The reason is that they believe in a myth that has been perpetuated for many generations of academia.\u00a0 Namely that the finance academic must be compensated similarly to what they would make as a professional on Wall Street, lest they be lured away from the university and into the secular world.\u00a0 This is a legitimate concern.\u00a0 However, there is no reason that these relationships cannot be disclosed.\u00a0 I would love to hear the argument of why they shouldn’t be disclosed.\u00a0 Let’s imagine some…<\/span><\/p>\n