Nelson’s Article, “Economics and Community Knowledge-Making,” Published in Journal of Economic Methodology

ECI Senior Researcher Julie Nelson’s article, “Economics and Community Knowledge-Making,” was published in the Journal of Economic Methodology in January 2021. The paper suggests that the economics discipline is beginning to acknowledge the social nature of knowledge-making, which contrasts with the field’s tradition of imagining objectivity as “something attainable by lone (traditionally male) researchers.” Positive developments include the increasing attention being paid to community checks on empirical work – in the form of meta-analysis (statistical analysis that combines results from multiple studies), pre-registered studies, and replication – as well as recent efforts by the American Economic Association to increase workplace diversity and inclusion.

Those initiatives are crucial, given that community checks and the inclusion of historically marginalized perspectives have exposed biases in supposedly “rigorous” empirical behavioral economics research, according to Nelson. However, there is still room for progress. The discipline needs to allow the recognition of the social nature of knowledge-making to further shape the content and goals of its work.

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