Thursday, July 12, 2007

Paradigm Policing Economics Style

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Via Dani Rodrik we learn that the New York Times has caught on to the Great Heterodox Economics debate. The article isn't great, but this caused a double-take:

The experience of Mr. Card’s graduate students suggests how the process can work. Mr. Card is by no means on the fringe, but he said his research on the minimum wage in New Jersey “caused a huge amount of trouble.” He and Alan B. Krueger, an economist at Princeton, found that contrary to what free-market theory predicts, employment actually rose after an increase in the minimum wage.

When Mr. Card’s graduate students went on job interviews, he said other economists would ask questions like “What’s wrong with your adviser? Has he started drinking?”

Which is mostly just humourous, until you read the next line.

This is why Mr. Blinder said he advises graduate students “not to do what I do” when it comes to challenging the standard model.

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