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Heterodox Economics Newsletter

Issue 231 June 04, 2018 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory

In this issue of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter you will not only find a series of hasty deadlines for job postings (here), conferences (here and here) and summer schools (here), but also an exhaustive list of recently published books. The books section carries a strong flavor of the "Marx 200" anniversary as many books listed in this issue deal with labor struggles (e.g. here or here), updating and reviving Marxian economics (e.g. here or here) or alternative approaches towards socialism (e.g. here).

In addition, for some of our readers it might be of interest that an issue regularly touched upon in this editorial - the role and impact of research evaluation on the stance and development of economics - is now also raised as a point of concern in the context of the G20 meeting in Argentina. The associated policy-brief on this issue can be found here. It raises a series of typical concerns related to a lack of intellectual and demographic diversity in economics, like the strong gatekeeping role assigned to a very limited set of journals (see here for more details), the perverse incentives emerging when citations become "a target instead of a measure" or the tendency of authors to adapt their work so that it mimics top-performing outputs in economic research more closely. The latter phenomenon implies a general tendency for conformity, where the relevant standards are set by a dominant group of male, anglo-saxon researchers in the economics discipline with consequences not only regarding methodological or theoretical aspects, but also extending to research topics (e.g. studying the UK and the US is more atttractive than studying Italy or Kazachstan), terminology (do we speak of "discrimination" or of "wage-differentials"?) and the diversity career paths in economics.

While it may seem remarkable that the question of research evaluation in economics - which should ex ante be seen as a primarily academic issue - is on the tables of the G20 meeting, I think this is no accident. Economics as a discipline has a far-reaching, and often downplayed, impact on economic policies on the national as well as international level (see here for a recent review paper on the political power of economists). Against this backdrop, it should not come as a surprise that the issue of research quality in economics is favored by the Argentinian presidency of the G20, as Argentinia had to deal a lot with "economic expertise" in their successive confrontations with the IMF and private financial market actors. Hence, they might have some interest to look beyond the iron curtain of economic expertise and to examine the inner workings of the discipline.

Having said all that, I hope you will find some inspiration when inspecting this issue of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter more closely!

All the best,

Jakob

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