I have taken the liberty of changing the subject line since the discussion seems to
have shifted.
Given that this is the Armchair list, what would economists make of an industry that
works like this:
A firm (the university) hires employees (professors) to make products (articles) that
are
William Sjostrom wrote:
> > I agree that academia wastes vast resources relative to the goal of seeking
> > truth, but I disagree that this implies a market failure, mainly because I
> > don't think the ultimate customers fundamentally want truth. In fact, I
> > think customers in part want fadd
Well, yes it is a dependent variable, but the point is to change the
consumer --- we talk too much to ourselves, how about if we were forced to
talk to a different audience -- say the everyman (as Hazlitt or Dan Klein
suggest) or the policy maker (as is the case in transition economies and
develop
Bill Sjostrom wrote:
"Clearly, there are journals that exist solely as outlets for economists at little teaching colleges to get in the one or two papers they need for tenure, for no
obvious reason."
What are some examples of those journals?
Also, what are some good lines of research or question
Robin probably regrets using the word "cheap" in regard to entry as
this has clearly confused some people. As Robin later pointed out he
meant "cheap" to mean the journal industry approximates the economic
concept of free entry (more than many other industries we all think of
as competiti
> I agree that academia wastes vast resources relative to the goal of
seeking
> truth, but I disagree that this implies a market failure, mainly because I
> don't think the ultimate customers fundamentally want truth. In fact, I
> think customers in part want faddism and cults of personality.
Po
I wonder if entry is cheap. To effectively enter this market, you have to do more than
edit articles and print copies of the journal. You have to attract valued
contributions and thereby, readers. I believe contributors send articles to journals
on the basis of their brand name. How can a journ
Wait a minute Alex, I am not sure that journal organization has little to do
with the professional organization in the university. Change the nature of
the way resarch is published and presented and the research game will change
within the academy. Journals are like the arbiter of the rules that
OK Robin so you want to say that consumer wants not truth or relevance but
signals about smartness. Then our profession is doing a decent job, but the
opportunity cost of this is huge. Economics is a particularly relevant
discipline for public policy and social understanding. I believe there our
Robin Hanson:
Michael E. Etchison wrote:
> >an industry (academic journals) where . . . entry is cheap
>
>>As a non-academic, I have to wonder -- if getting in is so cheap, why
is getting a copy so expensive?<<
>Standard armchair econ question, really.
Yes, I know, and I know what "we'd susp
Pete writes "We go through an entire process of being cultured to the
ways of the
profession called graduate school and especially the process of writing
a
dissertation and getting a job. Then you get more of that as an
assistant
professor -- especially if you are at a top 20 research university.
Bryan D Caplan wrote:
> > Here we have an industry (academic journals) where concentration
> > is low, entry is cheap, and most firms use the same production
> > technology (referees with veto power), even though an alternate
> > technology (editors pick) has long been tried, and is easy to try.
>
Peter J Boettke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"have a central posting service and then judge
articles on how much they are downloaded..."
Wouldn't that just give the incentive to write
interesting titles and abstracts so that the papers
will be downloaded? "Damn the content! I just want to
be downl
Peter J. Boettke wrote:
>... But the bottom line problem with this
>entrepreneurial hope in the market for academic economics is that we don't
>have institutions that serve the functions analogous to property, prices and
>profit and loss.
The standard story is that authors have a property right i
Michael E. Etchison wrote:
> >an industry (academic journals) where . . . entry is cheap
>
>As a non-academic, I have to wonder -- if getting in is so cheap, why is
>getting a copy so expensive?
Standard armchair econ question, really. If prices are going up,
and quantity is going up, we'd susp
I like Bryan's coordination failure idea --- we have a sort of peacock
feathers problem. This is born out, I believe, in the evidence on how much
the average article in the AER is read. The idea that the AER is the "best"
journal as Bryan said a coordination issue.
This is why I like one version
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