Listen now (30 mins) | Getting an academic field to change its ways is hard. Independent scientists can’t just go rogue - they need research funding, they need to publish, and they need (or want) tenure. All those things require convincing a community of your peers to accept the merit of your research agenda. And yet, humans are humans. They can be biased. And if they are biased towards the status quo, it can be hard for change to take root.
Great episode! RCTs and appreciation of applied work is a great example of a positive paradigm shift towards reproducible work in economics. I think there are a few other moments that we can consider paradigm shifts in economics, particularly in the 1970s with the capital controversy debates and the impact of behavioral economics in recent years (which you somewhat alluded to as it is an influence from outside the field). I'd like to also point out how heterodox economists are hurt by paradigm bias and that effect persists today. What I think is most interesting in paradigm shifts is that the type of questions we are asking is changing in conjunction with methodological revolutions (asking more policy evaluation kinds of questions, but tend to leave out 'bigger' questions on economic growth patterns across countries, for example).
How a field fixes itself: the applied turn in economics
Great episode! RCTs and appreciation of applied work is a great example of a positive paradigm shift towards reproducible work in economics. I think there are a few other moments that we can consider paradigm shifts in economics, particularly in the 1970s with the capital controversy debates and the impact of behavioral economics in recent years (which you somewhat alluded to as it is an influence from outside the field). I'd like to also point out how heterodox economists are hurt by paradigm bias and that effect persists today. What I think is most interesting in paradigm shifts is that the type of questions we are asking is changing in conjunction with methodological revolutions (asking more policy evaluation kinds of questions, but tend to leave out 'bigger' questions on economic growth patterns across countries, for example).