As Gerald Epstein, economics professor and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, and Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth, economics PhD student, recently showed in their paper, “Financial Economists, Financial Interests and Dark Corners of the Meltdown: It’s Time to Set Ethical Standards for the Economics Profession,” the economics profession has no official standards or ethical code to regulate potential conflicts of interest between economists’ roles as experts and their frequent roles as consultants and agents of private firms. Epstein and Carrick-Hagenbarth have spearheaded an effort to remedy this issue with a letter to the the American Economic Association, which has garnered the support of close to 300 economists, and drawn the attention of the national media.
Coverage includes:
New York Times [Economix blog], 1/4/11
The Economist, 1/4/11
Cincinnati.com, 1/3/11
The Washington Post, 1/1/11
Bloomberg, 12/31/10
TheLedger.com, 12/31/10