Who said or what said ? (2023)
There exists a long-standing debate about the
influence of ideology in economics. Surprisingly,
however, there are very few studies that provide
systematic empirical evidence on this critical
issue. Using an online randomised controlled
experiment involving 2,425 economists in 19
countries, we examine the e!ect of ideological
bias among economists. Participants were asked
to evaluate statements from prominent
economists on di!erent topics, while source
attribution for each statement was randomised
without participants’ knowledge. For each
statement, participants either received a
mainstream source, an ideologically di!erent
less-/non-mainstream source, or no source. We
find that changing source attributions from
mainstream to less-/non-mainstream, or
removing them, significantly reduces economists’
reported agreement with statements. This
contradicts the image economists have/report of
themselves, with 82% of participants reporting
that in evaluating a statement one should only
pay attention to its content. Our analysis provides