As Triple Crisis blogger Gerald Epstein pointed out in two recent blog posts (here and here), the economics profession has no official standards or ethical code to regulate potential conflicts of interest between economists’ roles as experts and their frequent roles as consultants and agents of private firms. As the American Economics Association (AEA) convenes today for its annual conference, Epstein and coauthor Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth have spearheaded an effort to remedy this issue with a sign-on letter to the AEA, which has garnered the support of close to 300 economists and drawn the attention of the national media.
Read the economists’ letter to the American Economic Association.
Read the coverage in the New York Times and Bloomberg.