Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Volume 4, Issue 2, May 2007

In This Issue:

Welcome to the May 2007 issue of Econ Journal Watch. EJW is a triannual peer-reviewed journal for scholarly commentary on academic economics.

Symposium: Trailblazers Too Lightly Mentioned?

Do establishment economists slight trail-blazing research that looks beyond the 40-yard lines? Three explorations:

  • Political economics: Daron Acemoglu says the economic analysis of constitutions and political structure has been revolutionized by Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini. But Charles Blankart and Gerrit Koester argue that the new political economics is not that new, and might be a step backwards.
  • Testing institutions: Why doesn’t research in the top journals make better use of the Economic Freedom of the World index? John Dawson reports.
  • Bygone dissent: Development economics has discovered important truths about trade, aid, property, and planning. Ian Vasquez recounts how the truths were pioneered in the work of Peter Bauer, and how the late-comers often neglect that learning.

Character Issues

  • Freer lunches: Henrik Lindberg tells the role of economists in liberalizing Swedish agriculture.

Economics in Practice

  • Where would Adam Smith publish today? Daniel Sutter and Rex Pjesky show that almost no math-free research appears in top economics journals.
  • Theory of what? Dan Klein and Pedro Romero articulate the difference between model-building and theorizing, and contend that most articles in Journal of Economic Theory do not qualify as theory.
  • The Internet and economic discourse: Dan D’Amico and Dan Klein examine the websites of Harvard and George Mason economists, and ask whether the differences speak of differences in character type.

Download and Print Entire May 2007 Issue (117 pages, 2.13 MB)