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0 pointsuoaei2y ago0 comments

It has the same problem as other social sciences in that often the experiments are set up in ways that just so happen to prove the ideological biases of the researchers. It also happens that the researchers who are awarded the most prestige and airtime are sympathetic if not outright fanatics of the prevailing order.

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slothtrop2y ago

"often" is not a number, and Economics has improved it's reproducibility rate more than any other social science.

> researchers who are awarded the most prestige and airtime are sympathetic if not outright fanatics of the prevailing order.

The most well-known Economists living, to the public, lean anywhere between left and far left. Stiglitz, Varoufakis, Piketty, Krugman. So that's horseshit. I also couldn't think of one who's "fanatic" of the prevailing order at all, they all have criticisms of the government; unless "prevailing order" for you translates to Liberal democracy.

uoaeiOP2y ago

Stiglitz I mostly agree he is "popular". Krugman is free-market-if-only-but-we-need-regulation so not really as left as you portray. Piketty often gets headpats from liberal press when he stirs, but is otherwise not really given the time of day because no one seems to have the energy to contend with his tomes. I think you live in a bubble if you think Varoufakis and his ideas are well-known to the public.

We could also talk about Banerjee and Sachs, but again, both couch their analyses in metrics that pre-suppose the supremacy of, and justify, the ways "value" are considered and what constitutes "progress" in popular discourse.

lanfeust62y ago

> Krugman is free-market-if-only-but-we-need-regulation so not really as left as you portray

A Liberal and Keynesian. I'd say firmly on the left side of the spectrum, this is only contested by the more zealous Twitter leftists who'd frame the lot of them as right-wing/neo-liberals.

> I think you live in a bubble if you think Varoufakis and his ideas are well-known to the public.

None of their ideas are well-known to the public, just their political affiliation. Granted Varoufakis, it having been years since the Greek crisis, is receiving less attention now.

> We could also talk about Banerjee and Sachs,

I can already hear the collective "who?"

On the right I guess Sowell is still alive, over 90 years old.

nequo2y ago

Could you be specific and point to a highly cited study that set up such an experiment? What in the experimental design do you think mechanically reinforced ideological biases and how would you have designed the experiment instead?

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