Två av höstens Ekonomistas-teman har varit att statsvetaren Elinor Ostrom fick årets ekonomipris och att utbildningen av nationalekonomer kritiserats i finanskrisens spår. Priset till Ostrom signalerade en vetenskaplig vidsyn, men den verkar inte vara allenarådande.
I ett utskick från Geoff Hodgson, ekonomiprofessor vid Hertfordshire-universitetet, återges kommentarer till årets ekonomipris som skrivits av forskarstuderande i olika länder på den välkända ekonomiryktessidan Economics Job Market Rumors. När man läser några av dessa anonymt skrivna kommentarer slås man av deras aggresiva tonläge, antiintellektualism och högdragenhet. Några exempel:
- Nobel BULLSHIT!!!! Who the fuck are these idiots? Never heard of them … ever. What kind of bullshit is this? This year is the worst.
- A stupid Nobel pick to accompany a stupid job market this year. Our field is falling apart
- This girl seems to be a political scientist. I dont think she has published original research in any major economics journal.
- Multidisciplinary?? Other disciplines are all rubblish. Why let them conteminate our purity?
- Economics is superior. Don’t let political science conteminate us!
- The fact that most of us have not heard about her says enough about her contributions.
- This is the problem with Affirmative Action: last time a woman tried to go to the moon, the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after the launch. now, this is the end of Economics.
Men det finns undantag:
- Seriously, this is a sensible and insightful award to an original and careful researcher whose work is widely cited precisely because it is original. To those of you who have never heard of her: you might start by asking why your lazy micro teachers inflict a narrow range of material on you that typically consists of selected papers from their own back catalog, the work of their buddies and one or two classics they themselves were forced to swallow in grad school. To those of who complaining that’s she’s never published in your favorite ‘top journal’: yes, despite that shameful handicap she is one of the most cited social scientists around, by economists and non-economists alike.
- These postings really do show the narrow training of many economists. In fact, economics departments in most universities are highly isolated places in the larger world of social science. To trash a scholar as serious and insightful as Ostrom is a shame.
Nu ska man förstås inte dra förhastade slutsatser utifrån dessa fåtalet åsikter (även om vi tenderar göra precis det, vilket beteendeekonomer visat). Citaten är dock träffande i den självgodhet som finns hos vissa nationalekonomer. Visst är nationalekonomi en fantastisk samhällsvetenskap, men den är långt ifrån färdigbakad. En forskare som slutar ifrågasätta sina egna utgångspunkter och slutar vara nyfiken på andras bidrag blir i längden en dålig forskare.
Ekonomistas 
Senaste kommentarer