How economics professors can stop failing us : the discipline at a crossroads / Steven Payson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Payson, Steven, 1957- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economics--Study and teaching (Higher).

Economics.

College teachers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (373 pages)

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, 2017.

Summary:

This book provides an eye-opening exposé on economics professors that will surely shock anyone who is not familiar with the topic, and even some of those who are familiar with it. It is critical of the behavior of economics professors, but is not critical of the field of economics itself. In fact, the book argues that it is essential for economics professors to improve in the work they perform, precisely because of the vital importance of their field.Other books that criticize economics professors typically present complex arguments that interest only the most advanced scholars. However, this book is completely different. It is written to be understandable to anyone who has with an interest in economics, regardless of their background. At the same time, the book does include the most relevant scholarly arguments--it just presents them in a manner that allows anyone to understand them.Also unlike other books on economics, How Economics Professors Can Stop Failing Us is written in the context of a genuine exposé. As such, itventures "backstage" behind the "show business" that has dominated the profession, revealing the profession's deep, dark, (and at times rather ugly) secrets. The book is able to do this by having an author who has experienced first- hand, studied, and written on this topic area for over three decades, who has organized training seminars on it, and who has served for over a decade as the Executive Director of the Association for Integrity and Responsible Leadership in Economics.While exposing the profession's shameful problems, the book also offers great hope in providing realistic solutions to them. One of the main solutions it proposes is for economics professors who are now failing us to follow, and learn from, those other professors who are not failing us--who have, instead, admirably upheld the principles of professional ethics and scientific integrity. In this sense, How Economics Professors Can Stop Failing Us offers the most hope, and perhaps the only hope, for economics professors to improve, and to play the responsible role that their students, their employers, and society overall, expects of them.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

No, this is not a joke

Why does theoretical economic literature exist?

What allows "literature-only" theoretical discourse to exist?

How the game is played

The quest for honest truth in economic science

The effects of electronic files, citation counts, and bibliometric databases

Scholarship, though beautiful, cannot save the academic economics profession

Academic economics at its dumbest and ugliest

Violations of professional ethics, whether by ignorance or intent

Product evolution and a personal story

Conclusion: what must be done in academic economics

Bibliography

About the author.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

979-82-16-32314-3

0-7391-9834-3