| By: |
Karl Beyer (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria);
Stephan Puehringer (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: |
In this paper we address the issue of the role of ideology and political
preferences of publically engaged economists and contribute to the debate on
consensus in economics. To do so, we conduct a social network analysis on the
signatories of economist petitions, which we identify as one channel for
economists to exert public influence. We base our analysis on a sample of 77
public policy petitions and presidential anti-/endorsement letters from
2008-2017 in the United States with more than 6,400 signatories and check the
robustness of our results with six sub-networks. Our contribution is twofold:
On the one hand we provide an extended empirical basis for the debate on
consensus in economics and the role of politics and ideology in economics. On
the other hand we provide a viable tool to trace the ideological leaning of
(prospective) economist petitions and economists based on the social structure
of petition networks. |
| Date: |
2019–04 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:94&r=all |